Asian Games 2023: India men’s hockey team wins gold, beats Japan 5-1 to secure Olympics quota

India has created history by clinching gold in the ongoing 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Friday. Harmanpreet Singh‘s men crashed 2018 champions Japan 5-1 in the men’s hockey final and became the Asian champions again. Importantly, India also booked the ticket to the Paris Olympics 2024. Only the gold medal winners in men’s and […]

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Edited By: Satyam Singh
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India has created history by clinching gold in the ongoing 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou on Friday. Harmanpreet Singh‘s men crashed 2018 champions Japan 5-1 in the men’s hockey final and became the Asian champions again.

Importantly, India also booked the ticket to the Paris Olympics 2024. Only the gold medal winners in men’s and women’s hockey at the Asian Games are assured of the Olympic place making new coach Craig Fulton proud.

This is India’s fourth gold in men’s hockey at the Asian Games after, 1966, 1998, and 2014. India secured the bronzed in the Jakarta Asian Games 2018.

Dominant Show against Japan

India headed into the final clash against the defending champions Japan, with a lot of confidence as they had beaten them in the group stage match. However, India survived a tough test against Korea 5-3 in the semi-final encounter and the confidence was evident with the composure that was on display.

Japan was technically sound at the beginning of the play and did not allow India to take the early lead. They were successful with the tactic as the game remained 0-0 at the end of the first quarter. Surjeet scored a goal in the 15th minute but the referee declared it as a foul inside the D while, India managed to get a penalty corner, which they were not able to convert into a goal.

Japan continued to display the defensively disciplined play in the second quarter as well. However, Manpreet Singh scored the first goal for India as the game was headed into the half-time with a 1-0 lead.

Japanese pushed hard in the third quarter to score which made them more vulnerable. India got 3 penalty corners on the trot in the 3rd quarter and Manpreet Singh successfully scored with a thunderous strike came in the 3rd attempt, giving India a much-needed 2-0 lead.

Amit Rohidas scored a penalty corner to give India a 3-0 lead and made Japan done and dusted by the end of the third quarter.

India took an inaccessible lead of 4-0 at the start of the final quarter with Abhishek’s goal. However, Japan’s midfielder Seren Tanaka managed to score the only goal for the team.

However, skipper Harmanpreet Singh doubled his figure with another goal from a sensational penalty corner to take the scoreline 5-1 for India at the end of the final quarter.