39
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and try out playing on a blue surface, using the distinctive yellow ball that is to be used during the Olympic hockey tournament. LOCOG’s head of competition David Luckes says: “The player feedback has been excellent.” One of the first players to try out the pitch was GB hockey
international Alex Danson, who said at the time: ‘”It provides a really strong contrast for players against the white ball and white lines and I quickly adapted to the change. The pitch is great to play on; it's really quick and true and enables us to play with con- fidence. I can't wait.” Neither can the South Koreans, who have laid their own blue
surface pitch at home to get used to the colour before coming to London in 2012. Great Britain have won gold twice in the men’s field hockey,
but the last time was at the Seoul Games in 1988 and Team GB has not finished in the medals since. Team GB’s women earned their only hockey medal at the Barcelona Games in 1992.
Despite reaching the semi-finals in Atlanta four years later, Team GB’s women were agonisingly pipped to a bronze medal by the Netherlands, who won their play-off 4-3 on penalty strokes after the game finished 0-0. With the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland uniting again on home soil, and the players gaining valuable training time, hopes are high that the medal drought will end on London’s distinctive blue pitches in 2012.
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