HOCKEY: Dutch win seventh women’s Champions Trophy

A happy Dutch squad celebrates its Champions Trophy triumph!

The traditional power in the women’s Hockey Champions Trophy had been the Netherlands, winning six of these tournaments between its inception in 1987-2011. But Argentina set the record for the most wins in the event in 2016 with their seventh title, including six of the prior seven.

But in the 23rd and last edition of this event – it will be replaced by the Hockey Pro League starting in 2019 – it was the Dutch who evened the score for most titles with a 5-1 victory over six-time winner Australia in Guangzhou (CHN).

The Dutch dominated the tournament, winning all five of their round-robin games against the rest of the field. Australia was 2-2-1 and qualified for the final, with Argentina (2-3-0) finishing third and China (1-1-3) fourth and playing for the bronze medal.

In the final, Xan de Waard scored in the seventh minute and Eva de Goode scored in the 11th minute for a 2-0 lead and they cruised in with a 5-1 win. Argentina routed China, 6-0 for third.

De Goode was named the Player of the Tournament and Marijn Veen scored eight goals for the top scoring honors. China’s Jiao Ye was named the top goalkeeper.

All-time, the Netherlands and Argentina have seven Champions Trophy wins, followed by Australia with six – that’s 20 of the 23 – and Germany, China and South Korea have one each.