India slumped to a 1-2 defeat at the hands of defending champions China in their last round-robin match but still qualified for the bronze medal play-off game against Japan in the women's hockey competitions of the Asian Games here on Sunday.
With three wins and as many defeats, the Surinder Kaur-led side finished its round-robin league proceedings at fourth position with nine points and will get a chance to defend its bronze medal, which they earned four years ago in Doha.
China topped the table with 16 points and will now take on Korea in the gold medal clash on Wednesday while India will fight it out with third place finishers and last edition's silver medallist Japan for the bronze.
Incidentally, Wednesday's match will give the Indian eves an opportunity to avenge their 0-3 loss to Japan in the league stages.
Against China today, the Indians played far from impressive hockey and trailed the home team for most part of the match.
As expected, China surged ahead in the 27th minute through a field goal from Zhishuang Wang before Xiaoxu Xu made it 2-0 with another field strike three minutes later, to go into the breather with a comfortable lead.
{{/usCountry}}As expected, China surged ahead in the 27th minute through a field goal from Zhishuang Wang before Xiaoxu Xu made it 2-0 with another field strike three minutes later, to go into the breather with a comfortable lead.
{{/usCountry}}Down by two goals, the Indians came out with more purpose in the second half but goals eluded them till the 65th minute, when they were awarded a penalty stroke and captain Surinder made no mistake in reducing the margin.
But that was all India could manage in the match as they hardly got any chance to go for the equaliser in dying minutes.
Men’s team clinches bronze in archery
Guangzhou: The Indian trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia fought through challenging conditions to clinch the men's team bronze after beating Chinese Taipei in the Archery competition of the Asian Games here on Monday.
Like women, the Indian men defeated Chinese Taipei but with a more comprehensive 220-216 margin as compared to the women's 218-217 victory in the bronze medal play-off.
Ghosal advances
Spearheaded by individual bronze medallist Sourav Ghosal, India blanked Japan 3-0 to notch their second straight preliminary league victory in men's team squash. Ghosal started the rout of Japan when he drubbed Yuta Fuki 3-0 (11-6, 11-2, 11-6) in 22 minutes. Sidharth Suchde, who also played in the individual events but did not win a medal, had to fight hard to overcome Tsukue Shinnosuke 11-5, 12-10, 11-6 in 45 minutes that gave India a 2-0 lead. India and Malaysia lead the pool by winning both their rubbers.
Women continue fine show in chess
India drubbed Mongolia to climb to the joint top position while their male counterparts slipped to the fourth spot with a shocking defeat at the hands of lower-rated Philippines after the fifth round on Monday.