Indians rule kabaddi
The Indian men’s and women’s kabaddi teams stayed on course for a successful defence of their gold medals as they logged facile wins to enter the finals of their respective events at the Asian Games here on Friday.
The women marched into the summit clash with a 48-24 triumph over Nepal before the men joined them with a 66-28 victory against Thailand in the last-four stage here.
The comprehensive wins also kept the two defending champion teams’ unbeaten run in the ongoing edition intact. In the women’s match, India established a sizeable 31-17 lead in the first half, including four all-out and four bonus points. Nepal could never challenge India enough and managed to gather only seven more points in the second half.
The men’s match followed a similar script as the Indians went up 37-18 in the first half and maintained the supremacy in the next half as well.
The gulf in talent and experience between the two teams was evident from the 15 bonus points that the Indians clinched as against 5 by Thailand during the match.
The two teams will be up against the winners of the Iran-Chinese Taipei clash in both the draws.
Women’s kabaddi became an Asian Games sport for the first time in 2010 and India have dominated every edition so far.
India are the defending champions in the men’s event as well. The team will be up against Thailand in its semifinal clash.
Men’s kabaddi has been a part of the Asiad roster since 1990, with India winning eight golds so far.
The only other nation to have secured gold apart from India in the competition is Iran, which finished on top in 2018.
India had stunningly settled for a bronze in that edition.
