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The gold most glittering
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‘First step towards Olympics glory’
Relay girls run away with gold
Quick notes
Punjab Thunder win
Kallis takes KKR into final
Rohit set to miss West Indies ODIs
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The gold most glittering
This bunch of Indian hockey players had never been lionised, never been celebrated the way they were tonight at the Incheon Hockey Stadium. They were treated as rockstars. Korean schoolgirls gaped at them, shrieked at them as if they’d just seen the Beatles or a ghost. Indian fans jumped down from stands 15 feet above the ground, rushed to get themselves photographed with Indian players. The Indians did the victory lap, twice. They threw their wristbands and T-shirts into the stands, where the fans snatched at them as if they were gifts from a Tendulkar. They wanted more, and the players threw up their shorts as well. The fans were celebrating India’s win over Pakistan — this was exactly what Terry Walsh, Indian coach, warned against. He wants Indian fans to look beyond Pakistan, the No. 11 ranked team in the world against India’s No. 9. He wants India to take on the world’s and win. It was a win worthy of celebration, though, because the Asian Games gold qualifies them for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. The gold here was India’s main objective of this tournament-heavy year; they were challenged in the early group matches, they lost to Pakistan in their group stage game. But they came through a high-pressure game against China, and then beat the hosts South Korea in the semifinals. Today it rained in the afternoon, and October has brought in chill in the air. The Indians were nervous, edgy, error-prone to begin with — fatally, they left Mohammad Rizwan unmarked as the Pakistanis mounted a counterattack. He received the ball upfront at left, dodged one defender and then had only the goalkeeper, Sreejesh, to beat. Three minutes into the match, India were down 0-1 — they were nervous, clumsy in trapping the ball, gifting the ball to the Pakistanis. Pakistan put men in defence, suffocating the Indians of space. Captain Sardar Singh, playing up the field, left a hole in the back, and the Pakistan attackers looked dangerous. It was remarkable that India turned it around in the second quarter — it seemed impossible to do. But India regrouped before the second half; the midfield began to feed the forwards better; Sardar Singh fell back deeper into the Indian half, and began to work better with the backline and the forwards. India began to create move and opportunities, and Pakistan’s defence was put under immense pressure. In the 12th minute of the second quarter, Gurbaj Singh sent in the ball into the Pakistan D, and Kothaljit Singh deflected in the ball. The Indians in the stands began to breathe again — the drumbeats from their quarter began to be heard with greater vigour, and the Pakistan supporters started looking a bit deflated. Pakistan did not create a dangerous chance after that for the rest of the match, though the Indians defence had to work hard to keep Pakistani forwards at bay. After the 1-1 draw, it was Sreejesh who took the centrestage — he first thwarted Abdul Haseem Khan, and then Umar Bhutta in the fourth shoot-off. India won 4-2 — the Indian players kicked off celebrations that lasted an hour, Pakistan’s players just lay down on the ground, crushed and dispirited. Baby’s medal
Sreejesh later said that the gold was for his new-born daughter. “I’d thought I’d be able to give her a gold medal after the Commonwealth Games, but that didn’t happen,” he told this writer. “But before coming to the Asian Games, I told her ‘baby, I’ll get this gold medal for you’. I’m glad I was able to win it for her.” He said he had worked hard to prepare for a penalty shootout situation. “I’d watched videos of Pakistan-Malaysia tiebreaker, and I had studied the moves of the Pak goalkeeper,” he said. “I was confident that I’d be able to stop goals.” |
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‘First step towards Olympics glory’
Incheon, October 2 Excerpts from an interview:
It was a good win, and we’re happy that we’ve qualified for the Rio Olympic Games. But we’re not really satisfied with our performance. It’s a young team, and this is only the first step. If we continue to work hard, if we work on the mistakes that we made in this tournament, then I hope we’d be able to do better in the coming tournaments. How important was this gold medal win? This is a proud moment for the country, but as I said before, this is only the first step. We can’t be satisfied with this. It’s a joyous moment and we should celebrate it, but we need to work hard for the Olympic Games. We’ve got two years for that. The team is in rhythm, but we need to fix the problems we had in this tournament, and play better in the future. What did you do better tonight than in the group match against Pakistan? India and Pakistan play better on the counter-attack, so our main aim was to avoid their counterattack. I felt that we managed to do that, though there were some moments in which they did well too. We got many chances too, which we could not avail of. But in the end, we won the tournament, and so we feel good. What did the coach tell you at the end of the match? He says that you’ve go to improve a lot. Yes, absolutely. In the beginning of the tournament, he’d said that to the senior players that our experience should count in this tournament, and that we had to play our best game. Today, our combination in the midfield was good, and we were able to feed the forwardline with several balls, and so we got many chances too. We missed many of them, and we need to train more to improve. We hope to do that in the coming camps and tournaments. What do you have to say about the performance of Sreejesh? He’s the best – you all saw how he played. Pakistan had beaten Malaysia through a penalty shootout in their semifinal, and we watched all of that over the last couple of days. And Sree, I think, managed to use that knowledge well. You do think that this game shouldn’t have gone into the penalty shootout? Yes, we hoped that that would be the case. But these semifinal, final matches are very difficult matches. The midfield seemed to click today. Yes, that’s true. Our main target was to block their counterattack by closing our middle… We managed to snatch and intercept many balls there, which we sent to our forwardline. We had some success there, though there were some moments when we mis-passed, too. But overall, we in the middle – Manpreet, Danish, I and Dharamvir – were quite effective, and that helped the team. We enjoyed those passes. Tell us about Pakistan, how you planned for them? Their attackers are good, and they’re good on one-on-one dodges. Over the last two days, we’ve worked hard on that. Ours is a young team, and there are 9-10 players for who this is their second-third big tournament. So it was a high-pressure tournament for them, but the youngsters performed very well. You were under pressure also to gain a direct entry into the Olympic Games, and this was to be done against Pakistan… I feel that after our performance in the other tournaments – the World Cup, Commonwealth Games etc – and how we did in our training sessions, we were sure that we’d win this gold medal. But the start here wasn’t very good, and we improved very much in the semifinal and the final. Now, we need to play such tournaments more, gain more experience in playing the big matches. We need to work on the speed, the strategies, how to read the game – we need to work hard on all this. Good but not a massive feat: Walsh
India coach Terry Walsh said he was delighted with the way the team managed to come back from 0-1 down to win the gold medal against Pakistan. But in very strong words, Walsh conveyed to India's fans and media that they must not be satisfied with the win — that beating Pakistan, the No. 11 ranked team in the world, was not such a big deal. "We were good enough to win," Walsh said, in an extremely underwhelming manner. "I think we played well enough, we made more chances than Pakistan. We outplayed them for a large part of the game and deserved to win. And our goalkeeper was very good in the shootout." "It's a good job, a really good job. I take my hat off to them. They came here with a target to win this tournament, and they've done so after a large number of years." He then warned the media not to go mad with joy; he said the past is gone, over and done with, and it's never going to return - he said India must stop talking about the glories of the 1920s to 1960s. "This is what you guys don't get in the media," he said. "These players have no memory of those days… But you continue to compare, compare!" |
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Relay girls run away with gold
Incheon, October 2 The quartet of Priyanka Panwar, Tintu Luka, Mandeep Kaur and MR Poovamma won an easy race in 3:28.68 to improve upon the earlier Games record of 3:29.02 which was also in the name of the gold-winning Indian team in 2010. This was the second gold for India from athletics after Seema Punia bagged the yellow metal in women's discus throw. Japan won the silver in 3:30.80 while China bagged the bronze in 3:32.02. The first lapper, Panwar was, lagged behind her Japanese counterpart but Luka, who won a silver in 800m race, ran a brilliant race to recover the lost ground for India. India took a small lead after two laps before Mandeep widened the gap in the third lap after holding out a strong challenge from her Japanese counterpart. Poovamma, who won a bronze in 400m race, then anchored India to gold by blasting her way to the finishing line. This was the fourth time India has bagged gold in women's 4x400m relay in Asian Games as the country has been winning the event since the 2002 Busan Games. Mandeep Kaur, who ran an impressive third leg was part of that gold-winning quartet in the 2010 Guangzhou Games. Inderjit wins bronze
Inderjeet Singh took home the bronze medal from the men's shot put final at the Asian Games here on Thursday. The Indian's best throw of 19.63 metres came on his fifth attempt, out of six, to surprisingly clinch the medal at the Incheon Asiad Main Stadium. Saudi Arabia's Sultan Abdulmajeed Alhebshi set his season's best throw of 19.99m to win the gold while Chinese Taipei's Chang Ming Huang took silver with 19.97. Inderjeet threw the metal ball at 17.19m in his first attempt which he bettered on his second to take it to 18.52. He equalled his best on the third but his fourth throw went slightly down to 18.14m before emerging with 19.63m which earned him the metal. His sixth attempt was disqualified. — Agencies |
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Vikas Krishan, Satish Kumar bag bronze medals
Indian boxers ended their campaign at the 17th Asian Games with five medals as Vikash Krishan and Satish Kumar settled for bronze medals after losing their semi-final bouts against respective opponents. However India's performance graph deteriorated from the last edition in Guangzhou, where they won nine medals including two gold medals, three silver and four bronze medals. This time it was gold from the legendary MC Mary Kom and four bronze medals won by L Sarita Devi, Pooja Rani, Vikas and Satish. Vikas, a gold medallist in the last edition in Guangzhou, lost to current World Champion Zhanibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan by split verdict of 2-1 in the middleweight (75 kg) category.
India stay on course for double gold in kabaddi
Defending champions India stayed on course for double gold in kabaddi as the sport's powerhouse stormed into the finals of both men and women's events respectively, with resounding wins at the 17th Asian Games on Thursday. Chasing an unprecedented eighth yellow metal in the mega-event, the Indian men defeated South Korea 36-25 in the semifinal to cruise into yet another final. India scored 14 points to Korea's 12 at the end of first half, but raised their game in the second to log another 22 points as against the opposition's 13. Earlier, the Indian women's kabaddi team recorded a comprehensive 41-28 victory over Thailand in the semifinals and stormed into the title clash with a lot of confidence while ensuring at least a silver medal. Taekwondo players ousted from Asian Games
India's taekwondo players had another bad day in office as none among the men and women in fray could make it to the medal round at the Asian Games in Incheon on Thursday. Saurav lost in the men's 63kg quarterfinal to Afghanistan's Abasi Ahmad Roman's 4-5. In the round of 16, Saurav had beaten Sujan Joshi 8-5 at Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium. In the men's 68 kg, Shiv Kumar lost to Alasmari Ghazi Mushabbab of Saudi Arabia 7-11. — Agencies |
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Sarita may face suspension or ban
Incheon, October 2 The international boxing association (AIBA), whose Executive Director is a South Korean, has started disciplinary proceedings against Sarita Devi, and also the entire Indian boxing team, and Sarita could face strong action, a suspension or a ban. Also, it has been learnt that the medal Sarita refused to take back after ‘gifting’ it to Park, and which has been with the organisers here, could be given to the Indian contingent here. Late on Wednesday night, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) — the sport’s governing body in Asia — had discussions among its senior officials, and it has been decided to give the medal back to Sarita. A senior OCA official has said that Sarita could be let off with just a “stern warning”. The OCA has said that Sarita’s refusal to accept her medal was in bad taste, but that it would consider the emotions of the boxer. “We have taken into consideration every aspect of the situation and then decided on it,” said a senior OCA official. The medal would be returned to the Indian contingent on Friday. However, another officials has said that Sarita could, in fact, be banned. “They (AIBA) are thinking of imposing a strong sanction on her,” said an official. On Thursday, the OCA received an apology letter, but there are conflicting versions about who signed this apology letter. One version is that the apology letter was sent on behalf of the Indian contingent, while another version from another source says that the letter was signed by Sarita. It’s learnt that there had been pressure on Sarita to take back her medal; it’s learnt that the Indian boxers, who were worried about their future in case the AIBA decided to act against all of them, wanted Sarita to relent.
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Punjab Thunder win
Mohali, October 2 A tame, one-sided affair, the match became almost a training session for the raiders of both the teams by the end. There was no resistance from the stoppers, especially of the losing side. The best stopper award went to Thunder’s captain, Yadwinder Singh, who made just seven stops. On a muggy evening, the spectators, who had come in a reasonably good number, roared whenever there was a tussle on the mat. But not many contests lasted for too long as the raider easily broke free most of the times. After a slow start when they fell behind, the Thunder took a slender lead by the end of the first quarter, which they kept increasing without much fuss. Sultan and Talwinder made it look like child’s play as they kept the scoreboard ticking without fail. Such was their confidence level that the two raided nonstop – one after the other – in the final quarter, winning every point. It became more interesting to see who would finish with more points as the two put on a relentless show.
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Hyderabad, October 2 Chasing a target of 141, Kallis anchored the chase with an invaluable unbeaten 54 as the reigning IPL champions knocked off the runs in 19.1 overs to win their record 14th match on trot. Kallis added 63 runs for the third wicket with Manish Pandey, whose 32-ball-40 also proved to be priceless in the final context of the match. Kallis on his part hit four boundaries and two sixes in his 40-ball innings. The legendary all-rounder, who will be turning 39, finished the match with a mistimed pull-shot off Doug Bollinger, which went for a six as Ben Hilfenhaus, failed to take a simple catch at deep backward square leg. At the time of victory, Kallis had Yusuf Pathan (14 n.o.) for company and the Baroda dasher showed maturity by not attempting any rash stroke during their 34 run unbroken stand. It was the 13th over of the KKR innings turned out to be unlucky for the Hurricanes as Pandey going for an expansive drive was caught by glovesman Ben Dunk off Hilfenhaus. However the TV replays showed that the bowler has overstepped and Pandey, then on 22, got a lifeline. Pandey spanked the free-hit for a one-bounce four in the long-off region followed by a classic cover drive as KKR suddenly took control of the proceedings. In the next over bowled by Bollinger, the Bangalore lad flicked the bowler for a six as the Hurricanes suddenly went off the boil. Kallis, on the otherhand, played his customary game by rotating the strike but hit a few classy boundaries including one off his hips off Hilfenhaus. He also showed his class as he came down the track to lift left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty for the first of his two sixes. Brief score:
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Rohit set to miss West Indies ODIs
New Delhi, October 2 Rohit, who fractured his finger during the England ODIs, was initially ruled out for four weeks but though his finger healed, the top-order batsman's shoulder continued to give him trouble. “To set the fractured bone, two pins had been inserted inside the hand and now as per my knowledge goes, it has been taken out. Rohit is hand is shaping up fine,” a BCCI official told PTI on Thursday. Rohit, 27, is being monitored by BCCI physios at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and is expected to make a return for the three Tests against the visiting Caribbean side starting October 30. India are likely to continue with the opening combination of Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan, and Murali Vijay may be persisted with as a back-up option. — PTI
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Incheon, October 2
Hyderabad, October 2
This is your first Asian Games gold medal, and also your biggest gold medal. What do you think of the final?