Asian Games 2023: Japan Outplay India In Women's Handball

The Indian women's handball team began their Asian Games campaign on a losing note, losing to Japan 13-41 in their group B clash in Hangzhou on Monday. Menika, who netted four goals, was the sole bright spot for India giving them a fourth minute lead. But thereafter it was all about Japan as they fired on all cylinders to race to a 21-4 lead after 30 minutes. Japan pumped in 20 more second-half goals to open their campaign with a bang.

Priyank and P Thakur struck three goals each, while M Sharma, Bhawana and S Thakur scored one each for India.

For Japan, S Ishikawa was the leading goal-scorer (seven). Y Kitahara (5), S Hattori (5), K Ozaki (4), N Sahara (4), Y Yoshidome (3), N Aizawa (3), R Dan (3), H Matsumoto (3), A Ohmatsuzawa (2) and M Hatsumi (2) were the other goal scorers for Japan.

India will face Hong Kong, while Japan will play Nepal in their next group match Wednesday. Hosts China are the other team in the group. Top two teams will make the semifinals slated to be held on October 3.

Indian women's rugby team lose four matches in row, end eighth

Indian women's rugby had a woeful Asian Games outing, losing all their four matches to finish eighth overall on Monday.

First, the Indian women's rugby team were blanked 0-15 by Singapore to endure a third defeat on the trot. In their last group stage match, the Indian team failed to score a single point against the world No 35 as they lost its chance to qualify for the classification playoff for fifth-sixth places.

Then in the seventh-eighth place classification India were beaten by Kazakhstan 7-24.

On Sunday, India had lost to Hong Kong and Japan.

India had finished seventh in their maiden Asian Games campaign at 2010 Guangzhou. (Asian Games Medals Tally | Full Schedule - Sep 25)

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