Asian Games 2014: India Win Two Kabaddi Golds, Move Up to 6th Spot
The Indian kabaddi team - both men's and women's - claimed a gold medal each on Friday to take India to 6th spot in the medals tally.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: October 03, 2014 12:08 pm IST
Indian men's and women's teams edged Iran to win two kabaddi gold medals at the Asian Games at Incheon on Friday.  (Day 14 Updates | Schedule | Tally)
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. (Sarita Devi Has Offered 'Unconditional Apology': International Boxing Association)
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. (India Beat Pakistan, End 16-Year Wait for Asian Games Hockey Gold)
Indian women's team beat Iran 31-21 for their second successive kabaddi gold medal. 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-to-neck 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.