The International Hockey Federation (FIH) on Saturday apologised for the clock controversy which took place during the Indian women’s semi-final loss to Australia at the Commonwealth Games, saying it would “thoroughly review” the incident.
Australia’s Rosie Malone, who missed her first attempt during the penalty shootout, was gifted another chance as the eight second countdown on the scoreboard hadn’t started. The forward did not miss the second time, putting her side in the lead.
The Indians eventually lost the semi-final 0-3 in the shootout after both teams were tied 1-1 at the end of regulation time as the crowd booed the technical officials for the decision.
“In the semi-final match of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games between Australia and India (women), the penalty shootout started mistakenly too early (the clock was not yet ready to operate), for which we apologise,” FIH said in a statement.
“The process in place for such situations is that the penalty shootout has to be retaken, which was done. This incident will be thoroughly reviewed by the FIH in order to avoid any similar issues in the future,” the statement added.
“Frustrated and angry” by the ‘clock howler’ coach Janneke Schopman said they lost momentum after the incident. “After that, we lost a little bit of our momentum. Then it did go in, and everyone is deflated,” Schopman said.
