India now have the option of fielding both their men and women hockey teams for the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October, after they reached the finals of the Asian qualifiers in their respective categories in Bangkok on Saturday.
According to the qualification rules, two teams will qualify from the Asian qualifiers for the Games but a country can only field one men and one women team across four sports — football, handball, hockey and rugby — and it will be up to the Indian Olympic Association to decide whether it wants to field both the hockey teams.
Having topped their respective groups in the pool stage of the competition being played in the Hockey5s format, the men’s team defeated Bangladesh 9-2 in their semifinal encounter while their women counterparts beat Malaysia 4-2 in their last-four stage match.
The men’s semifinal saw India dominate the first two periods as Shivam Anand scored a hat-trick (5th, 8th and 15th minutes) to give India a 3-0 lead going into the final period.
Six goals from the Indian team in the final period, including another one from Shivam (24th), were enough for them to see off the challenge from Bangladesh, who managed to score twice in the match through Sobuj Shohanur (23rd and 29th).
India’s other goal-scorers in the match were Rahul Kumar Rajbhar (22nd and 23rd), Maninder Singh (22nd), skipper Vivek Sagar Prasad (24th) and Mohammad Alishan (26th).
The men’s side will face the Malaysia in the final on Sunday.
The women’s semifinal was a close encounter. Chetna gave India the lead in the sixth minute but Malaysia’s Nor Isahhidun scored the equaliser in the ninth. minute. However, India pulled up their socks in the second period and scored two goals through Ishika Chaudhary (14th) and Salima Tete (20th) to regain control of the match.
India scored another goal through Sangita Kumari in the 23rd minute to take a 4-1 lead. Malaysia could only score once in the final seven minutes, the goal coming from Siti Hussain’s stick in the 27th minute. They will now face China in the final.
(With PTI Inputs)
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