Indian junior hockey teams remain unbeaten at Youth Olympics Qualifier

The Indian junior men’s hockey team thrashed Hong Kong and South Korea to reach the semi-final, while the women’s team beat Thailand to top its pool and enter final four of the Youth Olympics qualifier.

other sports Updated: Apr 27, 2018 21:24 IST

Indian junior men’s and women’s hockey teams are playing in the qualifying tournament for the Youth Olympics to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, later this year.(Twitter)

Indian junior men’s team thrashed Hong Kong 21-0 and South Korea 12-5 to finish on top of Pool A at the Youth Olympic Games qualifiers in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday.

The Indian junior women’s hockey team also continued its unbeaten run, defeating Thailand 9-0 to finish on top of Pool B and qualify for the semif-inal.

In their first match of the day, skipper Vivek Sagar Prasad scored the first of the nine goals in the first minute itself to give the junior men’s team a good start. He doubled the tally in the fourth minute followed by goals from Rahul Kumar Rajbhar and Rabichandra Moirangthem.

It was Mohammad Alishan’s three goals in two minutes that took the opponents by surprise. At the end of first period India were leading 9-0.

The story wasn’t any different in the second period as India scored seven goals with two apiece from Mohammad Alishan and Shivam Anand and one each from Rahul Kumar Rajbhar, Sanjay and Yashdeep Siwach.

While conceding none, Indian side piled up five more goals in the third period to register yet another dominating win.

The team then came up with another impressive performance against South Korea in their last group match.

The two sides who were unbeaten throughout the tournament looked equals until the sixth minute as score-line read 2-2. But India changed gears hitting the back of the net thrice in next three minutes to lead first period 5-2.

Second period saw Indian side consolidate their lead with four more goals to South Korea’s solitary as the scoreboard read 9-3.

The final period was no different as the Vivek Sagar Prasad led team scored three more to South Korea’s two.

In their final Pool B match, the junior women’s team scored three goals in the first period followed by four goals in the second period, while the third period saw India score two more goals.

Mumtaz Khan (3’, 4’, 14’, 24’), Sangita Kumari (14’, 15’), Lalremsiami (4’), Deepika (12’) and Ishika Chaudhary (25’) scored the goals for India.

The junior men’s team will take on either Pakistan or Bangladesh in the first semifinal, while the junior women’s team will face Malaysia in their semifinal tomorrow.

The five-day tournament is a qualifying event for Youth Olympic Games 2018 to be held at Buenos Aires, Argentina.