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Hockey Olympic Qualifiers: Chinese women first to make it from qualifiers

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Rajan Nath
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Hockey Olympic Qualifiers: Chinese women first to make it from qualifiers
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China could not have asked for more. It not only put past yesterday's 0-2 defeat against Belgium behind but also recorded a splendid 2-1 win the penalty shootout after winning the return game with an identical 2-0 margin. This China has become the first team from among 14 women teams in run for Tokyo Olympics 2020 to make the grade.Supported by a strong home crowd, China had the Europeans under pressure in the second half after a barren first half.
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Concerted efforts and good moves ultimately helped the home team to break the goalless deadlock in the 57th minute. Chinese efforts culminated into a penalty stroke  that was converted by Gu Bing Feng. And a minute later, Chinese proved that their first goal was no fluke as Meiyu Liang scored a gem of field goal to make it 2-0. China needed a minimum two goals difference to go for penalty shootout to decide which team goes to Tokyo.
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In the resultant shoot out China scored two through Na Wang and Li Jiaqi while Belgium could score only once through Amber Ballenghiem.
How Olympic qualification works: According to rules circulated by FIH for the Olympic Qualifiers, the winners will be determined as follows: teams will be ranked according to the number of points each has accumulated in both matches (for each match, 3 points are awarded to the winner, 1 point to each team in the event of a draw and 0 point to the loser). If there is equality among the two teams, then the teams will be ranked according to their respective goal difference. If the equality remains, a shoot-out competition will be played to establish the winner.
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Earlier in Valencia,  Spain and France played an absorbing 3-3 draw in the first game of men's section in the Olympic Qualifiers 2019.
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Spain's men (WR:8) were forced to fight back from 3-0 down before salvaging a 3-3 draw against a France (WR:12) team that impressed greatly in a thrilling contest at Valencia's Estadio Betero. Victor Charlet, Gaspard Baumgarten and Amaury Bellenger all netted in the second quarter before Xavi Lleonart pulled a goal back from the penalty spot just before half time. Veteran striker Pau Quemada netted penalty corner efforts in the third and fourth quarters to ensure that the points were shared, meaning that second meeting between the two teams is very much 'winner takes all'. In another game in women's section, Spain's women (WR:7) claimed a deserving 2-1 victory over Korea (WR:11), but were certainly forced to do it the hard way. Jang Heesun put Korea ahead with a 19th minute penalty corner, a strike that was cancelled out thanks to a diving finish from Belen Iglesias just four minutes later. Lola Reira scored the winning goal with a penalty corner drag-flick in the 39th minute, giving Spain a slender advantage over the Koreans going into tomorrow's second leg.
-PTC News
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