The last day of pool play at the Olympic Qualifier in Baku saw already-finalist Spain inflict yet another heavy defeat on Kenya, Chile celebrate a hard-fought victory over Belarus to secure a place in Sunday's bronze medal match, and Azerbaijan defeat Ukraine to join Spain in the final.
The day started off with Kenya taking on Spain. Before the match, Spain had scored 16 goals and conceded only one, while Kenya had conceded 28 without scoring one, so it came as no big surprise when the Spanish imposed their dominance from the beginning and all through the match.
Putting away goals at a steady pace without making much of an effort, the Spanish cruised to victory, with Barbara Malda contributing four to the final total of nine goals, Nuria Camon and Raquel Huertas two each, and Esther Termens one. The game was mainly light practice for Spain, especially for penalty corners, of which they had 17 in the course of the match, scoring from three of them.
The two teams had already been confirmed as first and sixth in the table, and the result of the match had no influence on the table - much in contrast to the two other matches of the day which were direct deciders for who reached the bronze medal match and who reached the final respectively.
The second match of the day, the encounter between Chile and Belarus, was an entertaining and close match. In an otherwise balanced first 35 minutes, Chile pulled away with a pair of back-to-back goals by Camila Infante late in the half however, and never looked back from there.
Startled by the sudden gap on the scoreboard, Belarus took a while to regain their composure, conceding a third goal when Paula Infante sank a penalty corner before getting on the scoreboard with the help of Alesia Tratsiakova who put away a penalty corner rebound.
The rest of the match was a steady back-and-forth between the two equal opponents, Chile safely resting on their two goal lead which proved to be too big an obstacle for Belarus to overcome. The victory put Chile into Sunday's bronze medal match, leaving Belarus to play Kenya for fifth place.
Expectations for the final encounter of the day were high, as Azerbaijan and Ukraine were going to be battling it out for a place in the final in their direct encounter. The tension faded quickly however, when Azerbaijan scored three goals in the first quarter of an hour, and dominated the game all the way.
Scoring two more in the second half, Azerbaijan had five on the scoreboard at the end, scored by five different players, Myungsoon Mammadova, Inoyathon Jafarova, Dilfuza Mirzaliyeva, Zhang Suleymanova, and Bo Kyung Ali-Zada, against none for Ukraine - the 11th shutout in 15 matches so far in this tournament, and thus joined Spain in Sunday's final that will decide whether Spain or Azerbaijan will pick up one of the last three remaining tickets to the Olympic hockey tournament in Beijing.
With pool play thus concluded, Spain are at the top of the table, followed by Azerbaijan and Ukraine, then Chile and Belarus, with Kenya bringing up the rear.
Barbara Malda tops the list of goalscorers, having doubled her tally with today's four goals, followed by Mi Kyung Aliyeva on six, and Nuria Camon, Raquel Huertas, Myungsoon Mammadova, and Maryna Vynohradova all on four goals.
After another rest day tomorrow, the first women's Olympic Qualifier finished on Sunday with the match for fith place between Belarus and Kenya, the bronze medal clash between Ukraine and Chile, and the all-important final, in which Spain and host Azerbaijan lock horns to claim the elusive ticket to Beijing.
