It started well with goals by Anna Mollenhauer and Gordon Johnston, both from Victoria, scoring to give sa国际传媒 1-0 leads in women’s and men’s games Tuesday at the last-chance field hockey qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
But a withering late Spanish attack, which led to five goals in the fourth quarter amid the din of a packed stadium, gave host Spain a 5-1 victory in a women’s game played in Valencia. Chile rebounded to edge sa国际传媒 3-2 in the men’s game in Muscat, Oman, ending the Paris Olympics dreams for both teams.
Mollenhauer will have to wait until at least Los Angeles 2028 to join her mother and two-time Summer Games (Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988) player Nancy Mollenhauer of Victoria as an Olympian.
The Canadian women’s team (1-2) includes the Island trio of St. Michaels University School graduate Mollenhauer and Oak Bay High-grad Kathleen Leahy, both former national champions with the University of Victoria Vikes, and Cowichan Secondary-product Sara Goodman of Duncan. Carrie Trumpy of Victoria is the manager of the Canadian team.
Spain (3-0) and Great Britain (2-1) advanced out of sa国际传媒’s pool to the semifinals against the top-two finishers of the other pool. The top three of the eight teams gathered in Valencia will advance to the Paris Olympics.
sa国际传媒, which qualified for the last-chance tournament by placing fourth in the 2023 Santiago Pan Am Games, will play in the consolation round beginning Thursday in Valencia.
sa国际传媒 has not qualified for the Olympics in women’s field hockey since the 1992 national team, composed mostly of players from Victoria, Duncan and Vancouver, played in Barcelona. sa国际传媒 came within a heartbeat of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but lost 4-3 in a shootout against host Ireland in what was the deciding game for a berth in Tokyo.
Canadian head coach Danny Kerry coached the Great Britain women’s team to the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics and to gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics and was brought on by Field Hockey sa国际传媒 to end the Canadian women’s Olympic drought.
Host France, Pan Am Games champion Argentina, Asian Games champion China, Oceania-champion Australia, European-champion Netherlands and African-champion South Africa are the women’s teams that have qualified for the 2024 Olympics. The remaining six berths for Paris are being decided in the two last-chance women’s qualifying tournaments taking place in Valencia and Ranchi, India.
The Canadian men’s team includes Tokyo Olympic veterans James Kirkpatrick and Johnston, who had two goals against Chile, of Victoria and University of Victoria Vikes products Keegan Pereira, Matthew Sarmento and Brenden Bissett. sa国际传媒 has opened its Olympic qualifier in Oman with losses to Germany and Chile. The Canadians finish off pool play Thursday against New Zealand and are guaranteed to be relegated to the consolation round.
