Hangzhou, China, October 6, 2023: There was double joy for India’s men’s hockey team as they won the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Friday night defeating Japan 5-1 - and winning a qualifying berth at the 2024 Paris Olympics as well.
An iron-clad defence and superb striking power allowed India to finish unbeaten in Hangzhou and sound a warning to the rest of the world that they had better watch out for the Asian giants in Paris.
Two superb penalty corners from skipper Harmanpreet Singh, and goals from Manpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas and Abhishek gave India a well-deserved and popular victory at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium.
It was party time at the stadium as a sizable contingent of Indian fans wildly cheering ‘Jai Ho, India Zindabad’, celebrated India’s fourth Asian Games title in the men’s competition. Their previous wins had come in 1966, 1998 and 2014.
“We wanted to be the number one team in Asia, and I think we proved that,” said Indian head coach Craig Fulton. “We have made the nation proud, that’s what we wanted to do. Our main objective was to qualify for the Olympics in Paris and we did that.”
Harmanpreet, 27, who was a part of the Indian side which won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics breaking a 41-year medal drought, superbly marshalled his talented side full of pacey attackers and strong defenders.
Midfielder Vivek Sagar Prasad, 23, the FIH Young Player of the Year in 2021 summed it up saying: “Offences win matches, but defence wins you championships. That is our mantra and why we achieved what we did here.”
Japan had no answer to breaking down the tough Indian defence which looked as impenetrable as the Great Wall of China.
“We defended well and at the same time, we have scored a lot of goals in this tournament. I think we are playing a nice brand of hockey,” noted South African Fulton.
India had been in scintillating form leading into the final as they topped Pool A with five wins and beating Korea 5-3 in the semi-final. In their imperious march into the gold medal encounter, the rampaging Indians scored 63 goals while conceding just eight. They added another five on the final night.
Harmanpreet, who had scored 11 goals before the final took his tournament tally to 13 with two well-taken and unstoppable drag flicks early in the second half which seemingly took the fight out of Japan.
Manpreet Singh broke an early deadlock when just before halftime, his reverse flick from the edge of the D beat the Japanese goalie to draw first blood for India. Soon after halftime, Harmanpreet and Rohidas got on the scoresheet converting penalty corners before a field goal from Abhishek gave India a healthy 4-0 lead.
Japan got a consolation score from a penalty corner converted by Seren Tanaka, but India’s captain fantastic was on hand to deliver the coup de grace as he whacked in his second goal right at the death to spark celebrations in the Indian dugout and across a nation.
“To win two tournaments back-to-back (Asian Champions Trophy and Asian Games) is not easy. We came here having won the ACT and wanted to back it up and prove that we can be consistent. We have done that. Now we have a year or more to prepare for Paris,” said Fulton.
It sounded like a warning to the world. India rocks in hockey – again.
Korea defeated China 2-1 in the bronze medal play-off.
The women’s gold medal match in hockey will be played on Saturday with hosts China taking on Korea for gold and an Olympic quota.
