After losing to Malaysia in a match that was virtually in their pocket, India redeemed themselves somewhat by claiming the men’s hockey bronze at the Asian Games here Thursday, defeating South Korea 1-0.
Tushar Khandekar scored a field gold in the 39th minute at the Aoti Hockey Field to give India its second Asian Games hockey bronze after 1986.
India were leading 3-2 in the semifinals Tuesday before Malaysia got the equaliser three minutes from time and went on to win via a golden goal.
Grapplers Rajiv Tomar and Nirmala Devi crashed out of the wrestling competition Thursday, but Mausam Khatri still has a chance of winning the bronze medal as he made it to the repechage round.
Mausam Khatri lost 1-3 to Taimuraz Tigiyev of Kazakhstan in the men’s 96 kg freestyle prequarterfinals at the Huagong Gymnasium.
The Indian, however, made it to the repachage round as Tigiyev lost 0-5 to Reza Yazdani of Iran in the quarterfinals.
Later Thursday, Khatri will face Syrian Alkarrad Raja in the repechage round and if he wins, will get a place in the bronze medal match against South Korean Jaegang Kim.
Meanwhile, Rajeev lost 1-3 to Aiaal Lazarev of Kyrgystan in the 120kg freestyle pre-quarterfinals.
Nirmala, a silver medallist at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, lost 1-3 to Zhuldyz Eshimova of Kazakhstan in the women’s 48kg pre-quarterfinals.
The Indian women beat Maldives 3-0 to finish ninth in the volleyball competition.
The Indians did not face much resistance from the Maldives and won 25-4, 25-5, 25-7 in 46 minutes at the Guangwai Gymnasium.
The women’s only win the in the preliminary rounds also came against Maldives. India had lost to Chinese Taipei, North Korea, Japan and Kazakhstan.
The men’s team will play China for the fifth and sixth positions Friday.
