Athens: The Indian Hockey Federation was left with no option but to move on from the controversial 1-2 loss to New Zealand after the game's world governing body rejected their protest for the second time in Athens today (Aug 22, 2004).

The International Hockey Federation's jury turned down India's second appeal on the ground that the team manager had not launched the protest in time.

India had initially protested against the umpire's decision to award the fourth successive penalty corner to New Zealand, which saw Hayden Shaw score the winner. The Indians claimed that the award was invalid as the match had concluded after umpire Ray O'Connor of Ireland signalled that the ball had gone out of play, implying that the game was over.

However, Xavier Adell of Spain overruled O'Connor and instead awarded the Kiwis a fourth penalty corner on the ground that the ball had clipped Dilip Tirkey's foot.

The first protest was turned down by FIH technical delegate Wiert Doyer of the Netherlands. The Indians then appealed against the verdict to the jury.

Declining the appeal, the FIH said India was required to appeal within 30 minutes of the technical delegate's decision but they took three hours to do so.

India paid a sum of 1000 euros for the two appeals as the FIH rules specify that the team's protesting will have to deposit a non-refundable sum of 500 euros for each protest.

The FIH jury is the final court of appeal and its decision cannot be challenged.

Yesterday's defeat threw the eight-time Olympic champions out of medal contention since they had already lost two of their first three league matches.