Asian Games: Bronze for India’s men’s hockey team after eight years

Indian men’s hockey team won the bronze medal with a 1-0 win over defending champion and four-time winners South Korea in the third-place playoff at the Asian Games here on Thursday.

India won with a lone second half goal through Tushar Khandekar to improve their performance in Doha, where they finished a poor fifth.

The bronze ended India’s eight-year long wait for an Asian Games medal. The last time the men’s hockey team made a podium finish was a (silver) last in the 2002 Busan Games.

This is also the first instance since the 1986 Seoul Games that they finished without a medal.

India broke the deadlock in the 39th by Khandekar, who was left unmarked in front of the Korean goal, pushed in a long diagonal hit into the D sent in by Gurbaj Singh, for the all-important goal at the Aoti hockey field.

The player of the match for India was goalkeeper Bharat Chetri who brought off fine saves in defending the penalty corners in which the Koreans are adept with variations.