Yippie! Indian junior men team dominates at Asian Youth Olympic Games Qualifiers 2018; bags title

Bangkok, May 2: Giving up a dominant performance at the Asian Youth Olympic Games Qualifiers 2018, the Indian junior men registered a commanding victory over Malaysia in the finals and clinched the title. Notably, the men overcame Malaysia via a penalty-shootout after both teams were tied 4-4 at the end of regulation time, while the women went down 1-4 to China to settle with silver medal in the tournament.

 

The final of the Asian Youth Olympic Games Qualifiers 2018 which was played in Bangkok between India and Malaysia provided the players to play a fast and free-flowing game and both teams did not disappoint on these fronts with some scintillating hockey on display. However, Indian team emerged superlative on Malaysia and clinched the title.

As soon as the finals started, Malaysia went ahead in the first quarter but immediately after a minute, Rahul Kumar Rajbhar equalized for India. Leading from the front, the Indian skipper Vivek Sagar Prasad gave a lead to a team in the 14th minute. Malaysian player Moharram taking the opportunity of a well-directed pass hit the Indian goal post and equalized the score by 2-2.

India took the lead again when Vivek made a superb run and scored in the 18th minute. Rahul Kumar Rajbhar's powerful hit beat the Malaysian goalie in the 20th minute and India went 4-2 up. Later, Malaysia came back strongly to score in the 26th minute and equalized in the final minute of the final quarter.

In a tie-breaker round, Indian goalkeeper Prashan Kumar Chauhan showed his class as he denied all the hit of Malaysian players and did not allow to score them. On the other side, the Indian players were unstoppable in the shoot-out and converted all their penalties to win the thrilling finals.

Rahul Kumar Rajbhar was awarded the player of the match for the final while Vivek Sagar Prasad went home with the joint top scorer award and also the best player of the tournament award. Meanwhile, in another final, the Indian women team went down to China by 1-4 and had to settle with silver. Deepika received the most promising U-16 player award.