Buenos Aires: The Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams squandered early leads and went down in their respective finals but managed to script history by picking up their maiden silver medals in the five-a-side competitions of the Youth Olympic Games here, late Sunday night.
The colts went down 2-4 to Malaysia while the eves suffered a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Argentina. The silver medals claimed in the Argentine capital are India’s first set of hockey medals in the Youth Olympics.
The Malaysian men and Argentina women made history of their own by winning their first-ever Youth Olympic Games five-a-side hockey gold medals.
Argentina men and China women secured the bronze medals respectively following 4-0 and 6-0 wins over Zambia and South Africa, respectively.
In the men’s gold medal match, India took the lead after only two minutes through captain Vivek Sagar Prasad. However, just about two minutes later Malaysia restored parity through Firadus Rosdi, but the lead was short-lived as Prasad grabbed his second goal of the match for India in the fifth minute and maintained a 2-1 lead at the interval.
After the break, Malaysia came out all guns blazing as Akhimullah Anuar brought the teams level again in the 13th minute before Amirul Azahar steered Malaysia to a lead three minutes later.
With only two minutes left on the clock, Anuar sealed the gold by scoring Malaysia’s fourth and his second goal of the day to win their first-ever Youth Olympic Games medal.
Later in the women’s summit clash, hosts Argentina were inspired by yet another capacity crowd. Having not lost a match in this event, Argentina were stunned as India took an early lead after only 49 seconds through Mumtaz Khan.
But once the early nerves settled, Argentina got into their stride and Gianella Palet restored parity after six minutes. Sofia Ramallo then edged Argentina ahead with nearly nine minutes on the clock to give the hosts a 2-1 lead at the break.
After the change of ends, Brisa Bruggesser made it 3-1 for the hosts. While India tried their best to get back in the game, Argentina held on to win their first Youth Olympic Games Hockey5s gold medal in front of a jubilant home crowd.