Olympic campaign ends for Jake Harvie and Aran Zalewski with Kookaburras defeated in quarter-final

Jake Harvie and Aran Zalewski’s Olympic campaign was brought to an early end with the Kookaburras defeated by the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. A third consecutive quarter-final matchup between the pair at the Games saw the Dutch avenge an early exit in Tokyo by shutting out the Australians and progressing to the final four with a 2-0 win. The result represents a disappointing finish for Australia, who came into the tournament among the favourites, and will add at least another four years to their gold medal drought dating back to 2004. Speaking after the game, Zalewski was philosophical but said disappointment was the overriding emotion in the team. “A lot of energy, effort and time goes into these campaigns,” he said. “You’re trying to do all you can to repeat yourself and set yourself up to perform. Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way. “As much as we wanted it, as much as we tried to put everything in place, you have to accept that it just wasn’t our Olympics. “It’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt a lot of boys, a lot of us only get one Olympics or very few opportunities to do this. “So sometimes you feel like something slips and you just have to kind of live with it.” The Kookaburras won their first three games in the pool stage in somewhat scrappy fashion but were then defeated by Belgium — who beat them in a penalty shootout in Tokyo’s gold medal match — and India. A third-placed finish in their group set up a difficult knockout game against the Dutch, who won all five of their pool stage games.