Chakde India! India Wins Men’s Asia Cup Hockey

The Asia Cup hockey tournament, which began on August 31 with teams from 11 different countries and regions in Asia, ended on September 9. India successfully retained the men’s Asia Cup hockey title with a 7-2 win over Korea at the Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium in Chennai.

India’s Shivendra Singh scored a goal in the first 4 minutes of the match itself, followed by Korea’s equalizer in the 9th minute. Soon, SV Sunil and Prabhjot Singh provided India with a 3-1 lead at the halfway stage. Rajpal further strengthened India’s side by scoring the next goal in the 42nd second from the top of the circle. Ignace Tirkey scored the fifth goal, and in the 55th minute Rajpal added another to India’s score. The final and the match-winning goal was scored by Prabhjot in the 64th minute. Even though the Korean player, Oh Dai Keun got a late goal in the 68th minute, it was too late and too less to make a difference.

The Indian Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh congratulated the Indian hockey team for their spectacular success in the Asia Cup. The Indian hockey coach, Joaquim Carvalho said that the victory was a part of the build-up to the Olympics and the aim was to qualify for Beijing. He also appreciated the entire team for their performance. It was earlier in 1985 Asia Cup in Dhaka when India had so ruthlessly defeated Korea by a margin of 8-1. Indian players had definitely displayed a better performance than the Doha Asian Games’ champion team of South Korea.

Malaysia defeated Japan to finish in the third place in the Asia Cup hockey, while China ended in the fifth place.

But it was just the opposite in the Indian women Asia Cup hockey tournament, which ended for India on a disappointing note with a 2-4 defeat at the hands of China. In a sad turn of events, Indian women players, Joydeep Kaur and top forward Jasjeet Kaur, received yellow cards for rough play in the 53rd and the 56th minutes, respectively. At the end of the game China won the 3rd place for the bronze medal, while India stood at the fourth slot.