SHARAD DEEP

JAKARTA: Vandana Katariya missed a sitter in the dying minutes as the Indian women’s hockey team’s bid to win a historic second Asian Games gold and a Tokyo Olympics berth was thwarted by a resilient Japan, who overcame a ranking disadvantage to beat the 1982 champions 2-1 in the final and become only the fourth country to win the continental games.

Only India, South Korea and China have won gold in Asian Games and Japan, with their maiden win, joined the elite club putting up a determined display.

Minami Shimizu (11th) and Motomi Kawamura (44th) scored for the winners off penalty-corners and Neha Goyal (25th) struck the only goal for India.

Japanese looked in cruise control of proceedings from the very start. They were quick with their passing as against the Indians who failed to play a free-flowing game.

MISSED CHANCES

India coach Sjoerd Marijne looked dejected. “We created enough chances but not penalty corners and the Japanese scored more than us,” he said.

“We had our best chance in the last few seconds but we couldn’t convert it. The chances you get you have to make it count, and if you don’t get it in the final, then it’s difficult.”

India got off to a good start and created the first couple of chances but both Lalrimsiami and Navneet Kaur were thwarted by