India's women are Asian Games hockey champions for the first time since 1982. They beat defending champions China 1-0 in Friday's final in Aichi-Nagoya, ending a 44-year wait and booking a place at the LA28 Olympics, a year after missing Paris altogether.
The only goal came in the 10th minute. Captain Salima Tete won the ball, Sakshi Rana found Lalremsiami in space in the circle, and she drove a reverse hit into the roof of the net. After that it was a defensive shift. Goalkeeper Savita Punia, 36, dived low to her left to keep out a penalty stroke from Ying Zhang, and Tete played on after a blow to her finger kept her off for about ten minutes.
Beating China was the target from the start. Before the World Cup, Tete told ESPN simply: "we have to beat China." China were Olympic silver medallists in Paris, and India had dropped out of the FIH Pro League a year earlier.
Head coach Sjoerd Marijne, who took India to fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, came back this year and rebuilt the side around fitness and high pressing. India won the FIH Nations Cup to return to the Pro League and finished fifth at the World Cup, above China.
Source
Original summary by Proventier.