Great Britain saw their Paris 2024 Olympic Games campaign end in a heartbreaking shootout defeat to India on Sunday following a 1-1 draw (2-4 SO).

Holcombe’s Ollie Payne started all six matches for Paul Revington’s side in Paris, with new Holcombe Head Coach and Director of Hockey Kwan Browne also in Paris as an assistant to Remington. 

Payne put in a number of impressive performances across the Games, not least in the opening match against Spain which GB won 4-0, but could have easily conceded in given the quality and number of chances created by their opponents. 

Following that opening day win, Revington’s men drew 2-2 with South Africa in a topsy-turvy affair before a Lee Morton brace earned another point in a late comeback against the Netherlands two days later as GB again drew 2-2. 

Hosts France proved a tough challenge at Stade Yves-du-Manoir later that week as Great Britain relied on late goals again to beat their hosts – a third-quarter penalty stroke from Zach Wallace levelling the scores before James Albery scored the winner with around six minutes to play via a deflected effort. 

Germany’s victory in the final pool match saw GB and Payne taste defeat for the first time in Paris despite their relative dominance for large spells of the match as the world champions prevailed 2-1 on Friday night.

That loss set up a last-eight tie with India, who also knocked GB out in Tokyo three years ago. 

Amit Rohidas was shown a red card when his stick hit Will Calnan in the face but India took the lead minutes later through Harmanpreet Singh at a penalty corner. 

Revington’s side levelled within six minutes through Morton but, despite dominating the rest of the match, could not find a winning goal with Sreejesh putting in a superb performance between the posts for India. 

Harmanpreet, Sukhjeet Sing, Albery and Wallace scored in the first four shoot outs with the score then at 2-2, before Upadhyay Lahit Kumar scored and Conor Williamson missed to give Craig Fulton’s side the advantage. 

Raj Kumar Pal scored next up for India to pile the pressure on former Holcombe man Phil Roper – he failed to score as India secured their spot in the last four.

Meanwhile, Brad Read was initially named as a travelling reserve for New Zealand and, due to injuries, he came in for the Black Sticks’ final match of Paris 2024 against Ireland. 

Coached by former Holc Greg Nicol, New Zealand took the lead through Joe Morrison but Ireland turned things around to win 2-1 courtesy of goals from Ben Walker and Jeremy Duncan.