Asian Games: Double kabaddi gold for India as men, women beat Iran

Incheon: Indian men’s team edged Iran in a nerve-racking final to win its seventh consecutive kabaddi gold medal while Indian women’s team beat Iran 31-21 for its second successive kabaddi gold medal at the Asian Games here Friday. India, who have won every single gold since men’s kabaddi was introduced in 1990 in Beijing, trailed Iran for the majority of the match but came back strongly to win 27-25 at the Songdo Global University Gymnasium. [caption id=“attachment_1741255” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  India’s team celebrate after defeating Iran’s team during their men’s kabaddi finals. AFP[/caption] A brilliant second half, at the beginning of which they trailed Iran by eight points, saw the Indians outscore their opponents 14-4 to edge them by just two points to clinch gold. Indian women’s team beat Iran 31-21 for its second successive kabaddi gold medal at the Asian Games here Friday. India had won the top prize in Guangzhou four years ago – the first time women’s kabaddi was introduced at the Asiad. India didn’t have it easy and were made to work hard for the win by the Iranians, their only real competition in the tournament. A neck and neck start saw both teams defend extremely well. But the Indian defence came out on top to exact 13 outs, including two ’lona’ points, that gave them a 15-11 lead after the first half. Iran, in contrast, had just eight outs and three bonus points. They failed to get even a single ’lona’ point. India’s supremacy started to show in the second half as they slowly started increasing the gap. It was again the Indian defenders who stole the show and registered 14 outs and two more ’lona’ points as Iran failed to make an improvement to their first half effort and had to settle for the silver. IANS