Kabaddi: India continue to dominate at Asiad

Incheon India achieved a second successive lsquoGolden Doublersquo in Asian Games Kabaddi as both their menrsquos and womenrsquos teams rounded off the Games for India with a gold medal each at the Songdo University Gymnasium here yesterdayBack in 1990 when kabaddi was first introduced at the Asian Games it turned out to be the only gold medal India won at the Games held in the Chinese Capital Since then the Indian men have never been pushed off the top spot on the podium and 2010 onwards when the womenrsquos section was added to the programme the women too have been right up thereAn Indian player grabs an Iranian attacker in red during the kabaddi gold medal match in Incheon yesterday PicsPTIYesterday as the 17th Asian Games competition meandered towards the end the Indian kabaddi teams won gold at the expense of Iran in both sections That saw India close the Games with 11 gold nine silver and 37 bronze for a total of 57 medals which was eight short of the haul of 65 including 14 gold achieved in 2010 Indiarsquos haul of 57 placed them fifth in the lost of total medal winners and eighth in the list of gold medal winning countriesAn Indian raider in white tries to touch an Iranian player during the final yesterdayPitted against the fast emerging Iranian team the men trailed all the way till three and a half minutes were left in the 40minute clash the women had an easier time The women won 3121 while the men who trailed 1321 at halftime finally won 2725Coach Balwan Singh a former India player himself said ldquoAll the Indian players have been part of the recent Pro Kabaddi and then we had a 20day camp before we came hererdquoAsked if the Pro Kabaddi has resulted in fatigue or injuries he said ldquoThere were some injuries but all that was sorted out in the 20day camp and the players were fine hererdquoFor skipper Rakesh Kumar who suffered an injury to his head though he recovered in time for the finish at the medal distribution and Navneet Gautam it was the third successive gold at Asian Games while Anup Kumar Manjeet Chilar and Surjeet Kumar won their second gold after having part of the 2010 teams alsoIn the menrsquos final Iran who were almost pushovers for India at the 2010 Games mdash losing twice by margins of over 15 points mdash were in lead most of the time and gave the sixtime defending champions a big scare The Iranians kept their nose most of the time and at one time were 177 ahead before closing the first half at 2113Indians had even conceded a lsquoLonarsquo when the entire team gets out in the first half Anup Kumarrsquos successful raid which fetched three points kept India in the game even Jasvir Singh seemed to be overaggressive and overconfidentThe second half saw some aggressive raids by India and that coupled with smart catching helped reverse the trend The turnaround came when soon into the second half India won a lsquoLonarsquo and managed to get to 21all before falling back again at 2124 Another recovery helped them get to 24allAt that stage Anup secured a point with a successful raid and when Iranrsquos Meraj Sheykh one of their stars of the day was caught it became a twopoint edge for India at 2624 But of the very next raid Anup delayed his lsquoreturnrsquo and was caught out to make it 2526 with less than a minute left Into the final few seconds Meraj was again caught in Indian territory and that ended the match at 2725 for IndiaCaptain Rakesh Kumar who played with a bandaged head after getting injured by a rival defenderrsquos knee during his raid in the second half said ldquoBy godrsquos grace we won It was tougher than we expected Iran is a good team but we made some mistakes initially and fell behind before recoveringrdquoRakesh added their halftime strategy revolved around dismissing Iran for a lsquoLonarsquo as Iran had four left and India had five ldquoWe managed that and that helped us equalize and move ahead If we had conceded a greater lead it would have been tough for usrdquo he saidThe Iranians looked fitter and faster but the Indians who are matchsharp mdash having played recent Pro Kabaddi mdash were more experienced and that carried them throughBefore the men came on stage the Indian women were held to only a slight edge over the Iranians at 1210 before making it a 2113 lead including two lsquoLonasrsquo They finished off the match 3121 for their second gold in a rowCaptain Tejeswini Bai Kavita Devi and Mamatha Poojary of the womenrsquos team were winning their second gold after having been part of the 2010 team also