India hockey smiles at Tokyo: Women, men teams win

INDIA had a field day in hockey at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Friday (30) with both the men’s and women’s teams winning their games. The women’s team beat Ireland 1-0 in a crucial game at Oi Hockey Stadium to remain alive for a knock-out berth while the men’s team trounced hosts Japan 5-3 to progress to the quarter-finals as the second team from Pool A.

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In the women’s match, Rani Rampal’s girls showed a lot of character after losing their first three games. A late goal from Navneet Kaur gave the Indian team their first win of the competition and also after the women’s team returned to the quadrennial event at Rio in 2016. India are now placed fifth in the group of six with three points from four games and have a match left against South Africa. Ireland also have three points but are placed fourth because of a better goal difference over India (minus five to minus eight). If Ireland lose to Great Britain, who are at No.3, and India beat the African side, the women in blue will go through to the quarters as the fourth team from Pool A.

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India men thump Japan 5-3

In the men’s section, India were playing Japan in a game of academic interest. Having won three of their first four matches, the eight-times gold winners had already progressed to the knock-out stage but did not want to lower their guard before the tough challenges in the quarters where they will take on any side from the Netherlands, Great Britain and Germany.

India took an early lead in the game played at the North Pitch of the Oi Hockey Stadium after an in-form Harmanpreet Singh converted a brilliant penalty corner in the 13th minute. It was his fourth goal in the tournament. Gurjant made it 2-0 two minutes into quarter two but Japan’s Kenta Tanaka pulled one back at half time. Watanabe then equalised it for the home team a minute into the second half but India pumped in three more subsequently (Samsher Singh, Nilakanta and Gurjant scored) to seal the deal. Murata scored the third goal for Japan to close the gap in the dying minutes.

Australia have qualified as the top team from Pool A.