A fighting Japan averted another loss with a last second equaliser to force a 4-4 draw with Poland in the Pool 'A' match in the Olympic men's hockey qualifying tournament in Madrid, Spain on Wednesday.
In a highly entertaining match, Japan, who were down 0-2 and 2-4, came back strongly to score twice in the last nine minutes, including the equaliser five seconds from the hooter.
Poland, who had beaten Britain 2-1 on Tuesday, thus moved to four points while Japan did well to recover from their 1-6 loss to Spain to pick up their first point in the tournament.
The Polish strikes came through skipper Piotr Mikula (10th, 51st), Artur Mikula (7th) and Zbigniew (33rd, penalty stroke) while the Japanese replies came from captain Kenichi Takayama (14th, 70th), Takashiko Yamabori (19th) and Naohiki Tobita (61st).