Hockey: Australians move closer to semi-finals

OLYMPIC GAMES

Australia's men beat bottom-of-the-table Malaysia 5-1 yeserday to make the British team's task of qualifying for the later stages appear even more difficult. Great Britain could only draw with the Malaysians on Thursday. In the women's competition, South Korea beat Spain 2-0 yesterday with goals in either half from Chang Eun-jung and Lee Eun-young.

The meeting of bitter rivals India and Pakistan in the men's competition petered out into a tame 0-0 draw on Friday night, all but eliminating both teams from the tournament. In front of a crowd of 14,800, the largest so far in the competition, India appeared to break the deadlock when Baljeet Singh deflected a shot by Hapreet Singh with less than four minutes remaining, but the umpire disallowed the goal, ruling that the ball was lifted. "It was a clean goal," Jahingir Butt, India's coach, said. "I don't know what he saw." The draw left India with four points in group B from four games, well behind group leaders and tonight's opponents Spain, who beat the United States 7-1 on Friday to clinch their semi-final berth. Pakistan face Argentina this afternoon, while second-placed Germany can guarantee their progress with a victory over the United States, who have yet to record a win.