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The men's hockey event at the 2004 Athens Olympics was played from August 15 to 27. The Hellinikon Olympic Hockey Centre staged all the games of the competition.
A total of seven teams made an entry into the 2004 Olympics through the Qualifier, including India. They finished fourth in the Qualifier, before losing 4-2 to Pakistan in the 3/4th place game. Meanwhile, the continental champions from five federations rounded off a 12-team tournament.
The Dilip Tirkey-led side were placed in Pool B along with the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina. In their first game, the Indian team lost 3-1 to the Dutch side, with forward Gagan Ajit Singh scoring their only goal.
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However, they bounced back with a terrific 4-2 victory over South Africa, with four different goal-scorers, Dhanraj Pillay, Baljit Singh, Tirkey and Gagan Ajit. Interestingly, India went 0-2 down in the first quarter itself but maintained pressure on the opposition to win the game.
India had another cracker of a contest against Australia, which they lost 4-3. Deepak Thakur, Gagan Ajit and Arjun Halappa were the goal-scorers for the side. The scores were level at 3-3, but Michael Brennan scored the winning goal for Australia in the last 10 seconds of the game.
The following game saw New Zealand prevail over India with a 2-1 scoreline. Pillay leveled the scores at 1-1 in the 62nd minute, but New Zealand's Hayden Shaw converted a penalty corner in the final minute to secure a victory for the team.
The final fixture saw India play out a 2-2 draw against Argentina. Gagan Ajit scored a brace, but none of the other players could step up to win the game. As a result, India finished fourth in their pool with a solitary victory in five games and could not seal the semifinal spot.
In the fifth to eighth place classification games, they lost 0-3 to Pakistan and then prevailed over South Korea to finish seventh in the 2004 Olympics.
Australia secured their maiden hockey gold medal in 2004 Olympics
In the semi-finals, Australia thrashed Spain 6-3 and the Netherlands got better of Germany with a 3-2 scoreline.
The final saw Australia secure a 2-1 victory against the Dutch side, thus securing their first-ever Olympic gold medal in hockey.
