OLYMPICS / Barcelona 1992: Hockey: Sixsmith the inspiration

Great Britain. .3

Korea. . . . . .1

BRITAIN'S women kept alive their hopes of reaching the hockey semi-finals with a gritty performance to beat Korea 3-1 here yesterday.

Britain, who made one change to the side which lost 2-1 to the Dutch world champions in their opening game - Jackie McWilliams coming into the defence for Vicky Dixon - had a storming start, with Karen Brown and Sandie Lister setting up a stream of opportunities. But their old weakness of poor finishing was much in evidence.

However, Britain took the lead after 17 minutes when Alison Ramsay burst through from the midfield to set up Jane Sixsmith, who scored with a neat reverse-stick flick.

Three minutes before the interval, Mary Nevill forced Britain's only penalty corner of the half which was converted by Sue Fraser, whose stinging shot gave Britain a 2-0 lead at half-time.

Korea reduced the deficit when Brown, who had worked hard in midfield, failed to cut out a Korean cross from Kyoung Hei Lee, and Eun Jung Chang gave Thompson, Britain's goalkeeper, no chance with her shot.

Britain, contrary to their normal practice, bounced back immediately and were rewarded with a long corner. Sue Fraser's hard cross found Sixsmith unmarked and she had plenty of time to pick her spot for her second goal of the match. The Koreans rallied again, but this time Britain's defence held firm.

Dennis Hay, Britain's coach, admitted later that he had been worried by the early misses but felt that, once they got into their stride, the team had played some of their best hockey during his seven-year tenure. 'It was controlled hockey, good teamwork, with everyone contributing,' he said.

GREAT BRITAIN: J Thompson (Slough); J Atkins (Bradford); S Fraser (Glasgow Western), K Johnson (Leicester), J McWilliams (Randelstown); A Ramsay (Glasgow Western) K Brown (Slough), S Lister (Ipswich), W Fraser (Glasgow Western); J Sixsmith (Sutton Coldfield), M Nevill (Leicester, capt). Substitutes: V Dixon (Ipswich) for Brown, 57; M Nicholls (Ealing) for Nevill, 61.

KOREA: J S You; G S Han; K J Lee, S Y Lee, J I Son; H S Yang, E J Chang, C S Kwon; K H Lee, G S Lim, Y M Ro.

Umpires: V Laje-Davilla and S Hernandez (both Spain).