How did the Indian men's hockey team perform at 2004 Olympics?
The men's hockey event at the 2004 Athens Olympics was played from August 15 to 27. The Hellinikon Olympic Hockey Centre staged all the games of the competition.
A total of seven teams made an entry into the 2004 Olympics through the Qualifier, including India. They finished fourth in the Qualifier, before losing 4-2 to Pakistan in the 3/4th place game. Meanwhile, the continental champions from five federations rounded off a 12-team tournament.
The Dilip Tirkey-led side were placed in Pool B along with the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina. In their first game, the Indian team lost 3-1 to the Dutch side, with forward Gagan Ajit Singh scoring their only goal.
However, they bounced back with a terrific 4-2 victory over South Africa, with four different goal-scorers, Dhanraj Pillay, Baljit Singh, Tirkey and Gagan Ajit. Interestingly, India went 0-2 down in the first quarter itself but maintained pressure on the opposition to win the game.
India had another cracker of a contest against Australia, which they lost 4-3. Deepak Thakur, Gagan Ajit and Arjun Halappa were the goal-scorers for the side. The scores were level at 3-3, but Michael Brennan scored the winning goal for Australia in the last 10 seconds of the game.
The following game saw New Zealand prevail over India with a 2-1 scoreline. Pillay leveled the scores at 1-1 in the 62nd minute, but New Zealand's Hayden Shaw converted a penalty corner in the final minute to secure a victory for the team.
The final fixture saw India play out a 2-2 draw against Argentina. Gagan Ajit scored a brace, but none of the other players could step up to win the game. As a result, India finished fourth in their pool with a solitary victory in five games and could not seal the semifinal spot.
In the fifth to eighth place classification games, they lost 0-3 to Pakistan and then prevailed over South Korea to finish seventh in the 2004 Olympics.
Australia secured their maiden hockey gold medal in 2004 Olympics
In the semi-finals, Australia thrashed Spain 6-3 and the Netherlands got better of Germany with a 3-2 scoreline.
The final saw Australia secure a 2-1 victory against the Dutch side, thus securing their first-ever Olympic gold medal in hockey.