The red hot Pakistan team won the Asian Games Men’s Hockey gold medal after twenty years with a comprehensive 2-0 victory over the Malaysian side in the finals on Thursday.
Sohail Abbas of Pakistan put his side ahead with a penalty corner in the twenty sixth minute before striker Rehan Butt further increased the margin three minutes after half time.
It was Pakistan's 8th Asian Games hockey gold, snapping a title drought that stretched back to Beijing back in 1990 and also handed them their first major crown since capturing the World Cup in Sydney back in 1994.
By virtue of this victory, the Pakistan side has also successfully qualified for the Olympic Games to be held in London in 2012.
After a disappointing performance at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi last month where they finished at number six, the green guns did well to end the year on a high note.
All the players kneeled in prayers immediately after the final whistle, before lifting their coach Michel van den Heuvel of Netherlands over their shoulders to the loud applause from the stands.
The Malaysian side, making its debut final appearance at the Asian Games, settled for silver.
Earlier in the day, former winners India, making a comeback to the Asian Games Men’s Hockey podium after a gap of four years, beat favorite’s South Korean 1-0 to win the bronze medal in the sixteenth edition of the multi-discipline
games in China.
Tushar Khandekar from the Indian side netted the winner four minutes into the second half as India dominated the opponents through the seventy minutes battle at the Aoti Hockey Centre.
The Indian side failed to pick up an Asian Games Hockey medal on the very first occasion back in 2006 when the event was staged in Doha and as a result had to pay the price for it when they couldn’t make it into the Olympics Games
in Beijing two years ago.
The eight-time Olympic winners previously captured the Asian Games crown back in 1966 and 1998.
Tags: