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Aussie Women Win Hockey Gold

ATLANTA (AP) -- The streak remains alive. More important, the Australian women's field hockey team has won another Olympic gold medal.

Alyson Annan scored two goals Thursday night as the Australians beat South Korea 3-1, extending their unbeaten streak in tournament competition to 40 matches dating back to last year.

Eight years ago, Australia beat the South Koreans 2-0 in Seoul to win the Olympic gold medal. This time, it was the Australians who had the crowd on their side, even if they were playing a long way from home.

``In Seoul, we didn't really have a lot of pressure,'' said Australian forward Jackie Pereira, a member of both gold medal-winning teams, who said she's going to retire. ``Today, we really wanted gold because we thought we deserved it. We wouldn't have been satisfied with anything else.''

Australia finished fifth in the 1992 games in Barcelona.

The Netherlands earned the bronze medal earlier in the day by winning a shootout from Britain 4-3.

Many in the crowd of about 15,000 at Morris Brown College were boisterous in support of Australia. Some acted as designated yell leaders, leading the fans in organized cheers and songs,

Six men, in particular, were big supporters, appearing shirtless with one large letter painted on the chest of each, spelling out ``A-U-S-S-I-E.'' Several others had the country's colors of green and gold painted on their faces, and many waved miniature Australian flags.

Annan scored her second goal with 26:29 remaining, converting a penalty kick to break a 1-1 tie. She drilled the ball to the left of diving goalie You Jae-sook and into the South Korean net.

A goal by Katrina Powell with 7 1/2 minutes remaining clinched the victory.

``I was given the opportunity (to score) and took advantage of it,'' Amman said. ``We had a lot of opportunities to score and didn't. To our credit, we persisted.''

When asked if this felt as good as she thought it might, Amman smiled and replied, ``Better.''

The Aussies went ahead 1-0 in the 17th minute when Annan scored off the game's first penalty corner. The South Koreans tied it in the 30th minute on a goal by Cho Eun-jung after the second penalty corner of the match.

Australia was 6-0-1 in Olympic round-robin competition, with the only blemish a 3-3 tie with South Korea, who were 4-1-2. The Australians outscored their opponents 24-4 in their seven round-robin matches.

Goalie Jacqueline Toxopeus of the Netherlands dove to her right to block a shot by Britain's Kathryn Johnson from the penalty spot on the final shootout attempt after the teams had battled to a scoreless draw in regulation time of the bronze medal game.

The Netherlands, 1984 gold medalists, converted four of five penalty shots in the shootout. Johnson had a chance to keep the shootout going before Toxopeus made her stunning save.

Suzan van der Wielen scored the winning goal on the final shot by the Netherlands. Earlier, Myntje Donners, Carole Thate and Jeannette Lewin converted for the winners and Christine Cook, Sue Fraser and Pauline Robertson scored for Britain, which won the bronze medal in the 1992 games.