NORTH Hampshire hockey ace Alex Danson is just two wins away from a gold medal after Great Britain qualified for the semi-finals of the Olympic Games.

The 27-year-old striker, who grew up in Odiham, has found the net three times in Britain’s opening four games – but the team progressed to the last four without hitting a ball in anger.

Japan's 1-0 victory over China, the only side in a position to take second place in Pool A away from the hosts, meant that Danson and her team-mates qualified for the semi-finals before their final pool game against the Netherlands.

Danson began the games in style, scoring twice as Britain beat Japan 4-0, and she also got on the scoresheet in the 5-3 win over Korea last Tuesday. The hosts made it three wins out of three by beating Belgium 3-0 on Thursday but a shock 2-1 defeat to China on Saturday meant that qualification was far from assured.

Going into Monday's games, Britain sat second in the Pool A table with nine points, two ahead of third-placed China with a superior goal difference.

However, Britain were due to take the world's number one side in the Netherlands, while China took on Japan, who lost three of their first four games.

The good news was that Britain would know exactly what they needed to do as the Chinese played at 1.45pm, several hours before Britain .

China's failure to win means that Britain will qualify for the semi-finals regardless of their result against the Dutch later today (7pm).

The hosts made it three wins out of three with a 3-0 victory over Belgium on Thursday. Ashleigh Ball gave Britain the lead just before the break, while second-half goals from Laura Bartlett and Crista Cullen completed a comfortable win.

That left GB knowing that a draw against the Chinese two days later would send them through - but two penalty corner strikes condemned the hosts to defeat despite Cullen’s late goal.

Basingstoke-born footballer Tom Cleverley's Olympic dream ended on Saturday night as Great Britain lost on penalties to South Korea at the quarter-final stage of the competition.

The game ended 1-1 after extra-time and while Cleverley scored his spot-kick, the hosts went down 5-4 on penalties.

See basingstokegazette.co.uk/sport to find out how Danson and her teammates get on later today.