Incheon India warmed up for their Asian Games field hockey clash against arch rivals Pakistan by thrashing Oman 7-0 on Tuesday as South Korea nudged ahead of Japan in the race for the semi-finals.
India, seeking their first Asiad gold medal since 1998, converted five penalty corners and a penalty stroke in the one-sided pool B game, but several scoring opportunities were wasted.
India and Pakistan face-off on Thursday in the competition’s marquee match that could determine the pool leader. Both teams have won their first two games in the 10-nation tournament.
India beat Sri Lanka 8-0 in their opener, while Pakistan showed their prowess with a 2-0 win over China and a 14-0 rout of Sri Lanka.
“There is always room for improvement, but we will be well-prepared for Pakistan,” said India’s Australian coach Terry Walsh. “I am confident we will do well.”
Two teams from each pool qualify for the semi-finals.
Hosts South Korea, the highest ranked Asian team at number eight and four-time champions, took a step towards the last four from pool A with a 4-0 demolition of Japan.
Veteran Jang Jong-hyun scored off a penalty corner and a penalty stroke as the Koreans swept past the lacklustre Japanese with two goals each in the first and third quarters.
South Korea beat Singapore 12-0 in the first game, to join Malaysia at the top of the pool with six points each.
Japan, left with one win from two games, must defeat Singapore and Malaysia in their remaining matches to stay in the hunt for a semi-final berth.
In other matches, Bangladesh beat Singapore 2-1 in pool A and China blanked Sri Lanka 6-0 in pool B.
Meanwhile, India had to settle for two bronze medals in wushu after Sanathoi Devi and Narender Grewal lost their respective semi-final bouts in the sanda category at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium.
Sanathoi settled for the bronze after she lost her semi-final bout to Chinese Luan Zhang in wushu women’s sanda (52kg). The Manipuri girl lost 0-2 to the Chinese.
Shortly after, Grewal also had to content himself with a bronze medal after he lost his men’s sanda (60kg) wushu semi-final bout to Filipino Saclag Jean Claude.
Earlier in the day, Y. Sapana Devi finished seventh in the final of the women’s changquan event. Sapana scored 9.27 points out of 10 as she collected 4.7 for quality of management, 2.57 for overall performance and two for degree of difficulty.
Though Macau’s Man Cho Sou and Iran’s Hanieh Rajabi also finished with 9.27 points, they have been ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, on the basis of lesser number marks for degree of difficulty.
India’s tally in wushu from the Asian Games is now five. W. Shandyarani Devi won a silver in women’s sanda 60kg in 2010, while M Bimoljit Singh bagged a bronze each both in 2006 and 2010 in men’s Sanda 60kg event.
