Youth Olympic Games | Indian hockey teams settle for historic silver medals in Buenos Aires

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk,SportsCafe Editor

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The Indian men’s and women’s hockey team both suffered defeats in the finals of their respective categories at the ongoing Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. While the men’s team slumped to a 4-2 defeat against Malaysia, the women’s team went down fighting in a 3-1 loss to hosts Argentina.

India won its first Hockey 5s Youth Olympics medal as captain Vivek Prasad and company settled for silver after they lost to Malaysia by a scoreline of 4-2 in Sunday’s final. The boys in blue entered the finals as the favorites to lift the trophy but were outdone by a determined Malaysia side.

Captain Vivek scored in the second minute to put the Malaysians under pressure at the start. The skipper made two more dangerous attempts in the next two minutes as the Malaysians searched hard for an equalizer. After Firadus Rosdi levelled the score for Malaysia a little later, the Indian captain tore into the Malaysian defence in the fifth minute to restore his team’s lead.

Indian keeper Prashant Chauhan ensured that India led at the end of first half despite a late flurry of shots from Malaysia’s  Firadus, Arif Ishak, Syarman Mat, and Muhibuddin Moharam made life difficult for him. Malaysia started the second half aggressively and that resulted in an equaliser in the 13th minute when Akhimullah Anuar hit a beauty into the Indian net. Amirul Azahar sealed the win for the Malaysian eventually, with a 17th-minute goal.

Meanwhile, the women’s team slumped to a 3-1 defeat in the final against hosts Argentina. Despite taking a lead early on in the game, the Indian eves were pegged back by a strong Argentinian team. Gianella Palet put the ball into the net to equalize for Argentina. Two minutes later, Sofia Ramallo put the ball into the net putting the hosts ahead, which was followed by Brisa Bruggesser’s second-half goal (11th minute) that was enough for the hosts as they controlled and dominated the rest of the match.

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