Commonwealth Games 2022: Hockey international body apologises after time goof-up cost India berth in final

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has issued an apology for the timer error during the women's hockey semifinal between India and Australia at the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham on Friday.

"The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) took cognisance of the shot-clock error during the Indian women's hockey team's semi-final against Australia at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on August 5," said Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in an official statement. The error, stemming from the conduct of the Technical Officials, led to Australia retaking their first attempt in the penalty shootout and scoring a goal when their original attempt had been intercepted by India captain and goalkeeper Savita Punia only for it to be deemed null and void as the timer had not begun.

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"An official complaint relating to the conduct of the Technical Officials in the aforementioned semi-final was raised by the IOA on August 6 and was addressed to Gina Dowson, the Commonwealth Games Association Relations Manager," added the statement.

In response, the IOA received an acknowledgement of the complaint later in the day from the International Hockey Federation (FIH), who has promised that "the incident will be thoroughly reviewed by the FIH in order to avoid any similar issues in the future".

In addition, the FIH has said that the governing body acknowledges "that the first penalty shoot-out last night started mistakenly too early (the clock on the scoreboard was not yet ready to operate), for which we sincerely apologise."

The Indian women's hockey team suffered a 3-0 defeat against Australia in the penalty shoot-out.

Ambrosia Malone, Kaitlin Nobbs and Amy Lawton netted the goals for Australia in the shoot-out while Lalremsiami, Neha and Navneet Kaur missed India's chances.

After this, India played New Zealand in a bronze medal match and won 2-1 in shootout.

The Indian women's hockey team claimed the bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games 2022 after a superb win over New Zealand via a shootout in Birmingham.

In the regulation time, Salima Tete (29') scored the goal for India, only for Olivia Merry (60') to score a late goal for New Zealand and push the match to a shootout. Savita made three sensational saves in the shootout, while Sonika and Navneet Kaur struck past Kiwi goalkeeper Grace O'Hanlon as India pulled off a thrilling 2-1 shootout win after a 1-1 scoreline in regulation time.