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Spain

Spain's men's field hockey team shunned the offer of air travel to instead cross the picturesque Wagah border between India and Pakistan and enjoy a cup of tea with the commanding officer of the Pakistan Rangers frontier guards.

Spain coach Maurits Hendricks, whose team had just completed two matches against India and was traveling to Pakistan to contest the Champions Trophy, described the Wednesday night journey through the only legal land crossing between the two countries as a "once in a lifetime experience."

"It was a wonderful experience," Dutch-born Hendricks told reporters Thursday at Lahore's National Hockey Stadium. "If you want to know about these two countries (India and Pakistan), you have to cross Wagah border."

Spain will contest the 26th edition of the Champions Trophy starting Saturday, along with New Zealand, Germany, India, the Netherlands and host Pakistan. Olympic champion Australia withdrew from the tournament earlier this month due to security concerns regarding host city Lahore.

The Spanish team, which chose to cross border through Wagah by bus, had to wait at the crossing for nearly six hours after immigration staff on the Pakistan side closed their offices earlier in the evening.

"It took may be a little bit longer than we would have liked but lets not focus on that," Hendricks said. "I am just happy that we had that experience."

Spain finished fourth at this year's Athens Olympics, where it trounced Pakistan 4-0 in a pool match.

Spain opens its Champions Trophy campaign against India on Saturday.

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