Asian Games 2023: India pummel Japan for hockey gold

India hockey players celebrate a goal against Japan at Hangzhou, China, yesterday. Pic/Getty Images

In front of a capacity crowd that, for the first time included a sizeable Indian population, Harmanpreet Singh & Co confirmed their ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics with an emphatic 5-1 win over defending champions Japan at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium here on Friday.

Chants of "Jeetega bhai jeetega, India jeetega," echoed for the first time in Chinese territory here as the skillful Indian hockey players scored at regular intervals across the hour-long encounter.

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Veteran hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh takes a selfie as India players display their gold medals yesterday. Pic/PTI

Hardworking midfielder Manpreet Singh, who led India to a historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, opened the scoring for the Indians with a field goal in the 25th minute after a barren first quarter. Skipper Harmanpreet (32nd minute) then made it 2-0 off one of his dreaded penalty corner drag flicks. Amit Rohidas netted India's third four minutes later. Striker Abhishek (48th) then made it 4-0 before Japan pulled one back three minutes later through Seren Tanaka. Harmanpreet, however, stamped his authority on the final with his second goal a minute from full time. Then, as soon as the final hooter sounded, he flung his stick on the ground and knelt down to kiss the turf in celebration.

Despite the wild celebrations that will follow however, the fact of the matter is that World No. 3 India were expected to win this gold medal rather easily, considering the next best Asian team are Malaysia, ranked a distant 10th. Paris 2024 will be a totally different and much superior ball game and veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh and coach Craig Fulton obviously realise this. "The work for the Paris Olympics has already begun. At the last Olympics, we did a wonderful job. Then, recently we won the Asian Champions Trophy and now the Asian Games, so we are consistent and on the right path," Sreejesh told mid-day moments after the victory.

Hockey India chief Dilip Tirkey is all smiles after India's win yesterday. Pic/Ashwin Ferro

Fulton added: "It was no surprise that we wanted to qualify for Paris through this Asian Games, so definitely we have started our Olympic preparations already. But today, in particular, I really enjoyed the way we played against Japan. We got our goals when we wanted and it was a good final," said Fulton.

Hockey India chief Dilip Tirkey, meanwhile, couldn't stop smiling after the win here. "We cannot discount Japan, they were the defending champions, but our boys have played brilliantly throughout this tournament to win it in dominant fashion," he said, before sounding a warning: "At the Olympics, we will have hockey powerhouses like Australia, Belgium, Germany and Holland and to beat them we have to raise the level of our game. I feel we still need improvement in penalty corner conversions. We have just one year left to prepare as we aim to better the colour of the Tokyo Olympics bronze."