1997 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy

The 1997 Men's Hockey Champions Trophy took place from October 11 to October 19, 1997 in the Pines Hockey Stadium in Adelaide, Australia. It was the toughest tournament of the year, and a prelude to the 1998 Men's Hockey World Cup in Utrecht next year. Participating nations were: hosting nation Australia, Germany, titleholders Netherlands, Pakistan, debutants Korea and Spain.

For the sixth time the annual six nations tournament ended with play-offs, in which the numbers one and two from the Round Robin faced each other in the final. The numbers three and four played the bronze medal game, while the numbers five and six tried to avoid relegation in their fifth and sixth place match. For the second time a win was rewarded with three instead of two points in the preliminary round robin.

Results

Pool

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Classification

Fifth and sixth place

Third and fourth place

Final

In a fiercely contested final at the Pines, Germany outplayed Australia 3-2 to clinch the Champions Trophy. Playing before an expectant home crowd of 10,000 spectators, Australia could not sustain its devastating form during the league stage, and allowed Germany to claim the Champions Trophy for a record seventh time.

The match was not over till the last second, when the Aussies forced two penalty-corners on the stroke of full-time, but failed to score amid frenetic home support. Forward Christoph Bechmann was the German hero after scoring the sudden death goal, four minutes into the first-half of extra-time, to finish with a hat-trick. Daniel Sproule and Stephen Davies scored for the losing hosts.

Awards