by Alex Hoad at the Riverbank Arena

Canterbury star Jen Wilson said South Africa’s nail-biting Golden Goal defeat against Japan at the Riverbank Arena on Wednesday morning was her final appearance at an Olympic Games.

The 33-year-old South African international was the joint top-scorer at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and also played at Beijing four years ago, but she revealed London 2012 would be her last Games – though she will make a decision about her more immediate international future next week.

place, however the Japanese stormed back and took the game to extra-time before winning it with a golden goal penalty stroke in the second period./10South Africa led 1-0 at the break against Japan in the classification match for 9

Wilson – who works at King’s School, Canterbury and has played for the City club since January 2003 – held back tears as she admitted: "There won’t be another Olympics, unfortunately not, but we’ll see how it goes.

"It’s difficult to think of emotions because everything I have done over the last two years has been about being here.

"Now that it’s over, I wait to see. I have not made any decisions yet, that will come next week once I have chance to reflect."

South Africa’s campaign began with a 7-1 defeat against Argentina and a 4-1 reverse at the hands of New Zealand, but they rallied with improved performances in a 2-0 defeat to Germany and 1-0 loss to Australia.

Then came Monday morning’s superb 7-0 victory over the USA – in which Wilson scored her only goal of the campaign – which lifted them off the bottom of the group and set up the classification clash with Japan.

Wilson said: "Overall there’s been some really low moments but there have been some unbelievable highs.

place is two places above our world ranking.""It’s special to be part of the Olympics and if you look at it, 10

She added: "That USA game will stand out in our minds forever. It showed the fight this team has got, coming off the back of a couple of games where we performed a bit better having let ourselves down in the first two games.

"Unfortunately we couldn’t do it today. It would have been great to finish on another good result."

On reflection Wilson believes her nation have progressed through these Games, adding: "We haven’t played for those bottom two places which is what we’ve done in the previous three Olympics.

"We’re really encouraged that we have taken a step in the right direction. I think we saw moments of our best but we were not consistently at our peak.

"There’s a lot on a slow boil at the moment and, when it comes out, South Africa’s going to be a force to be reckoned with."

Wilson also revealed being part of London 2012 was ‘special’ for her, adding: "It’s been spectacular. It’s special to be part of it because it’s almost like a home Olympics for me.

"It has felt like home and we’ve had some special moments to share with our teammates."