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GB COME OUT ON TOP

6th May 2012, 06:41pm

Great Britain: Won the event

Great Britain: Won the event

Great Britain's women won the Olympic test event after a bruising encounter with Argentina which did not come without cost.

Leicester defender Crista Cullen scored two second-half penalty corners but went off injured immediately after the second with an ankle problem.

Main striker Alex Danson later went off with a left shoulder injury and was taken straight to the dressing room for treatment.

Cullen did, however, attend the post-match trophy presentation albeit on crutches.

The only chance of the first half fell to Susie Gilbert but her sliding deflection was turned behind by goalkeeper Laura dell Colle.

Two minutes into the second half Cullen struck with a low flick and she added the second five minutes later, although got injured in the process.

Danson then left the field in tears after a collision with a defender.

Argentina rarely threatened and GB finished the competition without conceding a goal in all four games.Great Britain coach Danny Kerry was unhappy that Argentina's approach to the game was not clamped down on by the umpires.

And he while he was reluctant to criticise, he felt the disparity between the professionalism put in by the world's top nations and the standard of officiating needed to be addressed.

"High-performance teams spend a lot of time looking at videos, having criteria by which we judge things, and I think officiating has to match that," he said.

"They (umpires) have to understand what is going on. That will only come with a performance environment around that.

"There was stuff going on out there today which I think, if you play, watch or coach hockey a lot, you would know exactly what was going on.

"I have probably already said too much but that is how I feel about the game today."

Kerry said he expected Cullen's sprained ankle to be "fine" but was unsure about Danson until a more detailed examination had been carried out, which is an obvious concern with the women's Olympic squad set to be named on May 18.

Meanwhile, Great Britain's men finished third in their test event after a 2-1 win over India.

Having missed out on the final on goal difference, the game was always going to be more about experimentation than the actual result but the hosts were still more than worth their victory.

Early on Richard Smith hit the post from a penalty corner and had another set-piece charged down before James Fair produced a good low save to his right to deny VR Raghunath from a corner.

However, the Cannock goalkeeper could not keep out the Indian's next effort in the 23rd minute but seconds before half-time Surbiton's James Tindall flicked home the equaliser from a penalty corner.

The second half was evenly contested before Rob Moore popped up to sweep home the winner 13 minutes from time.

Coach Jason Lee is confident his side are on the right upward curve ahead of this summer's Games.

"I thought we should be playing better here than we were at the Champions Trophy (late 2011) and that is clearly the case," he said.

"We played to a much higher standard but it is lower than I would expect for the Olympics so we are on course.

Forward Simon Mantell, who fractured a metatarsal in group match with India on Thursday, will have an operation early next week to insert a pin and his participation in this summer's Games now looks highly unlikely.

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