Dutch hockey player's appalling act sparks ugly scenes after gold medal game at Paris Olympics

The Netherlands won gold in the men's hockey final on Friday morning (AEDT), beating their German rivals 3-1 in a dramatic shootout after the game finished locked 1-1. But their gold medal win was overshadowed by a poor act of sportsmanship by Dutchman Duco Telgenkamp, who decided to mock the losing side's goalkeeper instead of celebrating the Olympic Games triumph with his teammates.

After firing home the winning penalty past German goalkeeper Jean-Paul Danneberg, Telgenkamp chose to go up to the distraught German on the ground to do a shushing celebration, while the rest of his team ran over to their adoring supporters. His inexplicable actions resulted in a melee as the German side intervened. Telgenkamp was then seen putting his hand on German star Niklas Wellen's throat after he came in to defend his goalkeeper.

The ugly scenes after full-time soured what was the Dutch side's first men's hockey Olympic gold medal in 24 years. And hockey fans were quick to condemn the player's actions on social media, stating they were disappointed by the poor showing of sportsmanship.

Duco Telgenkamp says pre-match comments provoked him

After cooling off Telgenkamp apologised for his celebration but blamed Danneberg's pre-match comments - where the German claimed the Dutch were afraid of them - for his actions. "In hindsight, I shouldn’t have gone to him. I regret that. I also apologise," he said.

"I should have let it go and it wasn’t very smart. But it’s also a bit the nature of the beast. I can be very cool-headed, but I can also let myself go. Is that part of it?

"He affected me personally. Sports are not business, it doesn’t take much to be provoked. That’s how I go into the match. I felt a bit offended."

The German side didn't do much to settle their rivalry after the match either, with forward Christopher Ruhr saying his team deserved to win the match, calling the Dutch's gold-medal triumph "lucky". "We deserved to win the gold medal. It was an incredibly close match that came down to the shoot-out," Ruhr said.

"The Dutch team had the luck today, but our overall performance was strong. I think it is phenomenal that we made it to two finals at major sports events and won major knockout games."

Netherlands edge Germany in a tense encounter

The ugly scenes after full-time soured what was a high-quality final between the two best sides in the world. The Dutch took the lead through Thierry Brinkman, who dinked one over the German keeper. And the Netherlands almost doubled their lead with just 11 minutes to go, only for defender Gonzalo Peillat to spectacularly clear a close-quarters shot off the line.

Germany then equalised seconds later as Thies Prinz salvaged a botched short corner to score and send the match to penalties. The shootout was nerve-wracking and tight as the first five shuffles of the shootout were saved.

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Brinkman and Thijs van Dam then broke the shackles scoring for the Dutch, while Justus Weigand struck for Germany. Telgenkamp - the youngest player in the Netherlands' squad - then stepped up, scoring the winning penalty, finding the net on his reverse.