GB men’s hockey team start with comfortable victory

Defender Gareth Furlong scored twice as Great Britain’s men started their bid for Olympic hockey gold with a commanding 4-0 win over Spain in Pool A.

Nick Park poached the ball off a Spanish player, beat a covering defender and then calmly lifted the ball over goalkeeper Luis Calzado to put Britain ahead in the first quarter.

Furlong, who only made his British debut in February, doubled the lead at the start of the second quarter, slamming the ball through Calzado’s legs from a penalty corner.

Furlong made the game safe in the final quarter with another powerful strike from a penalty corner, before Rupert Shipperley pounced to force home Britain’s fourth.

Spain created plenty of chances at an overcast Yves-du-Manoir Stadium but a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping from Ollie Payne stopped them from scoring.

Britain, captained by Northern Ireland’s David Ames, are aiming to secure a first Olympic medal since winning gold in 1988.

“Defence is something we really pride ourselves on,” said Furlong. “The fact we probably haven’t played the perfect game, but we’ve still managed to score four goals and keep a clean sheet is obviously something that we can take confidence from.

“There are six or seven other countries who probably think the same thing but if we can keep building on this, I don’t see any reason why we can’t win this competition.”

Britain will play South Africa next on Sunday evening before facing top seeds the Netherlands, hosts France and world champions Germany in their other pool matches. The top four teams go through to the quarter-finals.

Great Britain women start their Pool B campaign against Spain at 12:15 BST on Sunday.

Meanwhile, reigning Olympic champions Belgium overcame Ireland 2-0 in the opening match of men’s Pool B.

Tom Boon opened the scoring and Alexander Hendrickx, who led the scoring charts in their Tokyo triumph three years ago, added the second.