The Indian kabaddi contingent made an impressive start to its campaign at the 18th Asian Games with the women's team mauling Japan and the men's side beating Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Jakarta on Sunday. Jakarta: The Indian kabaddi contingent made an impressive start to its campaign at the 18th Asian Games with the women's team mauling Japan and the men's side beating Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Jakarta on Sunday. Indian men's and women's teams had clinched the gold medal in the last Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea and both the sides dished out brilliant performances to make a winning start. The men's team outclassed Sri Lanka 44-28 in the second Group A match after opening its campaign with a 50-21 win over Bangladesh early in the day. In another lop-sided encounter, the women's team pulled off a dominating 43-12 win over Japan in its Group A opener. The women's team will take on Thailand on Monday, while its men counterpart will lock horns with South Korea. The women's team never looked in any trouble, dominating the contest from start to end against the Japanese. The team is seeking to complete a hat-trick of titles in the continental multi-sporting event. The men's team, perennial gold winners, also lived up to the favourites tag as it it looked in complete control against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.<doc-sep>ALSO READ: Sir ne bola, kal sab tere se badi umar ke honge, chad ke khelna ALSO READ: PALEMBANG/JAKARTA: Indian shooting 's teenage brigade threw up another surprise in Shardul Vihan 's silver but a taken-for-granted men's kabaddi gold was lost in a shocker as the country endured its most disappointing day at the 18th Asian Games here.With no gold added to the tally on Thursday, India slipped to 10th on the medals tally with four gold, four silver and 10 bronze for a total of 18 medals.The 15-year-old Vihan, with his double trap silver, became the youngest Indian shooter to win a medal at the Games where a 16-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary (10m air pistol) had become the youngest Indian shooter with a gold.The Meerut-based Vihan shot 73 in the final after topping the qualification earlier in the day. The gold went to 34-year-old South Korean Hyunwoo Shin and bronze to 42-year-old from Qatar, Hamad Ali Al Marri. (coach Mansher Singh)(all competitors will be a lot older to you, just shoot fearlessly and they will be wary of you). I just did that," said the child prodigy.A piece of joyous history was scripted by him at the shooting ranges of Palembang but some 600km away in Jakarta, the men's kabaddi team produced a stunningly abysmal performance to sign off with a bronze.Ajay Thakur and his men were left wide-eyed in shock as two-time runners-up Iran finally got the better of India with a gladiatorial performance at Theatre Garuda.The 18-27 defeat will not be easily forgotten, for it ended India's unchallenged kabaddi domination in the Asiad since the sport was first introduced in 1990.The fact that it's a sport indigenous to the country only adds to the humiliation and perhaps some soul-searching would be in order given that crores had been pumped into creating the Pro-Kabaddi League, complete with some Bollywood stars as team owners. "We lost the match due to the captain's overconfidence, injury played a part, and super tackle," dejected India coach Ram Mehar Singh said after the shocking defeat.Among the positives to count on Thursday was Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan's gritty win to enter the men's doubles final, putting India in strong contention for a gold on Friday. Bopanna and Sharan were fighting it out against the Japanese pairing of Shimbakuro S and Uesugi Kaito and having lost the first set 4-6, the Indians switched sides before emerging 6-3, 10-8 winners.In singles, however, Ankita Raina bowed out with a bronze medal after losing in the semifinals. Ankita played her heart out against top seed Shuai Zhang before settling for bronze.Another tennis medal was assured when world number 161 Prajnesh Gunneswaran outlasted 273rd-ranked Kwon Soonwoo of South Korea 6-7 (2 ), 6-4, 7-6 (8) in a marathon quarterfinal lasting almost four hours.India were also assured of at least a bronze medal in the squash competition as the country's top-ranked player Saurav Ghosal set up a quarterfinal clash with compatriot Harinder Pal Sandhu in the men's singles event.Both Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal made it to the women's singles quarterfinals with facile wins.In badminton, PV Sindhu had to dig deep to down a fighting Vu Thi Trang of Vietnam but Saina Nehwal eased into the next round.World Championship silver medallist Sindhu faced stiff resistance from world number 52 Trang before prevailing 21-10, 12-21, 23-21 in a tough opening round which lasted 58 minutes. In contrast, Saina just walked into the second round with a crushing 21-7, 21-9 win over Iran's Soraya Aghhajiagha in just 26 minutes.But archery continued to throw up disappointments, the fancied Deepika Kumari being a major one. The former world number one flopped yet again at the big stage on a depressing day for India's recurve archers, whose challenge ended at the Games.Only Atanu Das managed to reach the quarterfinals while the other three fell by the wayside at the preliminary stages. Das lost his quarterfinal 3-7 to Indonesia 's Riau Ega Agata Salsa Billa.There was heartbreak in weightifting too. Ajay Singh finished a creditable fifth with a personal best effort but senior compatriot and Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Sathish Sivalingam got injured during the men's 77kg category competition.Sathish, who holds the national record of 339kg, suffered a thigh injury during a failed attempt of 178 kg in clean and jerk to eventually lift a total of 314kg (144kg + 170kg).In swimming, national records were shattered but no medals came off the effort. Srihari Natraj twice improved his NR in the 200m backstroke but could finish only sixth in the final while Virdhawal Khade ended last in the 50m butterfly.A positive start was, however, made on the golf course where Aadil Bedi shot a bogey-free 69 that placed him and the Indian team tied second at the end of the first round. Bedi was one shot behind the reigning Australian Amateur champion, Keita Nakajima of Japan, one of the favourites.But the Indian rowing contingent had a disastrous day, missing out on as many as four medals, including in fancied events like men's single sculls and double sculls in Palembang.Gold contender Dattu Bhokanal was a major disappointment as he finished sixth and last in the single sculls final, clocking 8:28.56. He was consistently within the seven-minute mark in the run-up to the Games and his performance even in the Heats was nowhere close to his below par effort on Thursday.<doc-sep>JAKARTA : India's reign as the men's kabaddi champions of the continent was ended on Thursday evening by a spirited bunch of Iranians who scripted a memorable win to book their berth in third straight Asian Games final.It was a disjointed effort by the Indian team who struggled against their more organised rivals who used the techniques of the game more effectively to send the seven-time Asiad champions packing with the 27-18 win. This is for the first time that India, who would take home the bronze for reaching the semi-finals, would not be playing in the final since the introduction of the Games in the Asiad in 1990 in Beijing.The Indian women's team, however, kept the tricolour flying by booking their third Asiad final with a 27-14 win over Chinese Taipei. The women's team, which had won both the titles since the game's introduction in 2010, will meet Iran in the final.After starting their campaign on a winning note against Sri Lanka, the men's team had slumped to a shocking defeat against South Korea in their next match, indicating that not all was not well. But they failed to learn from the loss and came up with a sloppy show in the semi-finals against Iran.Ironically, several members of the both Korean and Iranian teams have honed their skills in the Pro-Kabbadi League of India. They put into use their league experience at the Asiad much better than the defending champions. India paid the price for being over-confident, as admitted later by the team management. "We lost the match due to over-confidence. The boys were tense. It's a big loss and we accept this. We must admit that their team played well," said team manager Ranbir Singh Khokkar.The difference in class was obvious from the performance as India failed to earn a single super tackle in the entire match while their opponents had as many as five.A super tackle situation is one when the raider gets caught in the opposition half by three or less defenders.India tried to put up a semblance of a fight in the first half and the teams went to the break at 9-9, but it was Iran all the way after the breather. "I tried to motivate the players and asked them not to be carried away. They should have played more intelligently," rued Indian coach Ram Mehar Singh.<doc-sep>
For the first time in Asian Games history the Kabaddi lovers will witnessed the new Gold medal winner other than India in Kabaddi as Iran thrashed the men in blue to record a thumping 27-18 win in the semi-final. Iran will now face South Korea in the final game while India will meet Pakistan for the bronze medal. Indian men's Kabaddi team finished second in the group stage after a loss to South Korea. Indian men's Kabaddi team has been winning the Kabaddi gold since the game was introduced in Asian Games in 1990, Beijing. Iran in Men's #Kabaddi at the #AsianGames 1990-2002: Did not participate Doha 2006: Bronze Guangzhou 2010: Silver Incheon 2014: Silver Jakarta-Palembang 2018: FINAL#AsianGames2018 Live updates: https://t.co/S93eRDUyM4 — The Field (@thefield_in) August 23, 2018 On the other hand Indian women's Kabaddi team performing superb in the Asian Games 2018.After the poor peformance in the team events, Indian women’s Kabaddi team will look to bag medal for the country against Chinese Taipei at the Asian Games 2018 at Jakarta. Indian women’s kabaddi teams secured emphatic wins against their respective opponents to qualify for the semifinals of the Asian Games. The Indian Women's Kabaddi team won 27 - 11 and qualifies for the finals of the 2018 Asian Games. In the first half Indian women's team build a huge lead of six points but two 'super tackles' in a row from the Chinese Taipei reduced the lead after which the Taipei leveled scores only to see two two-point raids take the lead away from them yet again. After the super tackle and couple of brilliant raids and Chinese Taipei have come back to level terms against India! Randeep Kaur grabbed the two points in two raids as she gets a huge touch on the left-in defender! India women's Kabaddi team is running away with the lead here. Sakshi strikes with yet another ankle hold as the rest of the defense pounces to pile on the misery! In the Indian Women's Kabaddi competition India won both its matches to top Group A with an all-win record and qualify for the semifinals. The Indian women defeated Sri Lanka 38-12 before crushing Indonesia 54-22 in its final group match. Indians had beaten Japan 43-12 and Thailand 33-23 in their earlier group matches.