Team GB men's hockey thrash Spain 4-0 as Nick Park scores wonder goal in bid for gold at the same venue as Eric Liddell's and Harold Abrahams' Chariots of Fire heroics a century ago

It was a little bit of magic from a 25-year-old called Nick Park. A defender in the British hockey team, he won the ball, waltzed off for 30 yards as if the thing were glued to his stick, and then deftly lifted his first Olympic goal inches under the crossbar.

Poor Luis Calzado was helpless to stop the rocket, the keeper ending up on the floor, a flapping bystander. And on his Games debut, Park had set the tone for what would turn out to be a commanding 4-0 win over Spain in Pool A.

Nobody in the team could quite believe it. He is not noted for Superman acts in such advanced areas. He admitted he had never managed this sort of a feat in training, and it wasn’t his usual fare at Surbiton Hockey Club, either.

But, perhaps, there was always likely to be a theatrical contribution at this of all stadiums: Colombes, north-west of Paris. And Park was aware of the ghosts of the past here, even if his grasp on the detail was a little sketchier than if you asked him about London 2012, when he watched the whole show with his sister.

But he was vaguely aware that the last time the Olympics came to this very venue, 100 years ago, Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell were golden stars in the 100 metres and 400m respectively. Their story was put on the silver screen as Chariots of Fire in 1981.

Not much of the grand old venue remains, but the place – replete with its commemoration to Liddell – still carries lustre that can’t be destroyed by an immaculate synthetic blue pitch occupying the old cinder track.

Yves-du-Manoir, as it is officially known, staged 250 international sporting events. It is not so grand now, and hardly looked its best under teary grey skies. The floodlights illuminated the gloom for a 10am start.

Outside, the police and army were heavily armed. More obviously so than I can remember from any of the previous four Olympics I have attended.

Anyway, Park’s rampaging score in the first quarter settled nerves for the British team, who by then had withstood two penalty corners.

He and his pals blew in a gust of optimism that has been missing from our men’s team since the gilt-edged days of 1988 and Barry Davies’s exclamation: ‘Where were the Germans? And frankly who cares?’

Now, after the podium-less years, the brake is off under head coach of two years, Paul Revington. ‘He’s like Guardiola,’ said one observer. Generous, for sure, but not a comparison the 50-year-old South African would accept with unalloyed delight. He is a Manchester United fan.

His first task here is to steer his charges through the group stages. 

There are two groups. Six in each. Four progress. South Africa (ranked 13th) come today. As well as Spain (eighth), the Brits must contend with France (ninth), Holland (first) and Germany (fifth). Our boys are rated second best in the world.

They lived up to that, though Spain were a touch profligate and goalkeeper Ollie Payne had to impress. 

After Park’s strike, Gareth Furlong delivered two more thunderbolts on his own Olympic debut before Rupert Shipperley, a 31-year-old veteran of Tokyo and once a geography teacher at KCS Wimbledon, pounced for a fourth.

The team were excused the opening ceremony in preparation for this. Early-riser Park, the tournament’s first scorer, said: ‘I didn’t expect to score that, but it meant a lot having family in the crowd watching me. We are aiming for gold. Why not?’

Early days, but there’s plenty of promise here.