Hook Hockey

Electrocution and curses – Olympic blog day 3

The irony may not be lost on the Malaysian press who complained heavily about the facilities in Dublin at last March’s men’s Olympic Road to London qualifier. Somewhat sore over threats that they were likely to lose the hosting rights to the Junior Asia Cup, one of their blogs launched a blindside attack on UCD, criticsing the lack of a training pitch and the “15-minute walk” from changing room to pitch.

Their gripe was that their facilities in Malaysia were far superior to Ireland’s national stadium but the stumbling block was a lack of a covered stand, a requirement under FIH rules. And yet on day one of the biggest tournament in the world hockey schedule, the heavens opened and the world’s media were forced to bury themselves under impromptu plastic awning as the Riverbank Arena is ostensibly topless bar a small section for the VIPs.

That this plastic sheet exists only came about following the test event in the spring when journalists and the broadcast media complained of the electrocution risk and potential water damage to their equipment. Ostensibly, the FIH is a guest of the Olympic Games and so, while covered stands may be a prerequisite for all other events, it is not the case for the Games.

And so it was, after a blistering start to the day, New Zealand gained their first ever win over Australia in women’s Olympic history, the London rain began to pour as the Netherlands took on Belgium.

Discovering the plastic protection drew many gags in the sizeable Dutch press about where most of the free condoms doled had been redirected. For my part, I was ‘off-duty’, solely providing the odd twitter update for the FIH site until Argentina’s 7-1 win over South Africa (pic below from Stanislas Brochier/FIH.

By then, my colleague Yan had produced “the tent”, an ingenious contraption that has allowed us to be the only journalists to {semi-comfortably) cover the game from the stands, cocooning our laptops in a waterproof shell.

Working in these conditions was not ideal but when the rain stops comes the tricky part, attempting to successfully roll up the transparent sheet without dropping 15 litres of accumulated water onto the lower bank of journos.

What it did mean is that the press centre was a fuller, livelier venue with most writers trying to outdo each other with stories of which team – and more specifically which player they have cursed.

My FIH previews, touting the likes of Luke Doerner and the luckless Willemijn Bos – forced out of the competition with an ACL tear just last Thursday – was markedly outdone by Push Hockey Magazine’s editor.

His cover stars in the lead-up to the Games were Mark Pearn and Richard ‘Ratman’ Alexander – neither made the cut for Great Britain.

On a day of comfortable results, game of the day from my perspective was the closer, Carol Metchette blowing the whistle. USA gave Germany the fright of their lives, bossing the second half and deserving much more than a single goal – Lauren Crandall’s minimal touch denying Claire Laubach a birthday strike – in their 2-1 loss.

Britain’s trumpeters kept the crowd going for their 4-0 thrashing of a miniature Japanese side. Twitter followers may have noted by stats on their respective weights – 60kg (under nine and a half stone) was their heaviest. To follow up that thought, just four of the British side are lighter than that mark, five of the Germans, showing the physical disadvantage of a sleight frame.

For this tie, a few areas were unfilled with the crowd numbering 12,530, 2,470 shy of capacity, a cause for concern which appears to be spreading across the Games at supposedly sold-out events. Most were in the premium areas of the stand.

** The agenda for day four is again the late shift, a great selection of men’s matches while trying to keep up with Scott Evans, the former Corinthian and Leinster underage player, and his progress in the badminton against world number one Lin Dan.