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Pakistan

ATHENS (Greece): Pakistan's ace penalty corner shooter, though failed to lead the side to medal podium but gained a distinction by scoring the highest number of 11 goals in the Athens Olympics Hockey tournament.

Sohail, scored 10 penalty corner and one penalty stroke goal, to prove his prowess and skills as the unmatched specialist in the present day hockey. Behind Sohail at one goal difference was South Korea's Seon Jung Lee, having scored three field goals and seven penalty corner goals.

"It is really good to get the status of highest scorer of the Olympics and I feel delighted," Sohail told in an interview here Saturday.

Sohail said he fully endeavoured to perform up to the highest level of his game in the tournament but still there are sour memories of finishing fifth and not seeing his side winning a medal.

At the third place were two players - Spain's Eduardo Tubau and Greg Nicol of South Africa with eight goals each. Interestingly the fourth place was shared by five players for scoring seven goals a piece. They were Mario Almada (Argentina), Jamie Dwyer (Australia), Ajit Gagan Singh (India), Taeke Taekema (Holland), and Philip Burrows (New Zealand).

Sohail, who also scored a hat trick against Egypt, said it was his second Olympics and creating new records are big achievements but he always believes in lifting the overall performance of the side. "For me creating records are not a source of pleasure if the team fails to achieve its objective in a major tournament."

"We failed to end medals drought at Olympics and we have to wait next four years to explore our chances and still it's a long way to go and who knows if you will be playing there or not," he said.

Sohail gained another distinction by breaking record of highest number of goals set by a Pakistani player in Olympics. He surpassed Brig (R) Hameedi's record of 16 goals in four Olympics by scoring 18 goals in two Olympics (Sydney and Athens).

"You see what matter at the end of the day is the team result, at one stage of the tournament we were so close and defeat against Spain ruined our chances of semi final qualification and now we have to start afresh for the next Olympics," he said.

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