The Indian men's hockey wound up its league stage engagements at the Olympics with a 4-2 victory over Japan and consolidated second place in Group A, behind Australia, on Friday.
Striker Mandeep Singh struck a fine hat-trick to help the Indian men's hockey team beat hosts Japan 6-3 and book a summit clash berth in the Olympic Test Event, in Tokyo.
India, who have already sealed a semi-final berth, ended the round-robin stage of the five-nation tournament at the top of the standings with 10 points, ahead of Korea (6), Japan (5), Pakistan (2) and hosts Bangladesh (0).
Japan staged a spectacular regulation time comeback to draw 6-6 before edging out Malaysia 3-1 in a penalty shoot-out and claim the men's hockey gold at the Asian Games on Saturday. Trailing 4-1 in the second period and then 5-2 in the fourth, Japan pumped in three goals through Kentaro Fukuda, Kenta Tanaka and Koji Yamasaki in a seven-minute blitz to level the pulsating contest.
The Indians were nowhere near their last match performance against Japan as their defence crumbled under relentless pressure from the lower-ranked opposition from the onset of the match.
India outplayed reigning Asian Games champions Japan 7-2 to storm into the final of the FIH Series Finals hockey tournament, in Bhubaneswar, on Friday, assuring themselves a place in the year end's Olympic qualifying event.
Defending champions India continued their goal-scoring spree and spanked Japan 8-0 to register their third consecutive win in the men's hockey competition at the Asian Games, in Jakarta, on Friday.
Penalty corner specialist Rupinder Pal Singh slammed six goals as India launched their campaign in the fourth Asian Champions Trophy with a rousing 10-2 victory over Japan in the Kuantan Hockey Stadium, in Malaysia, on Thursday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
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