Incheon:
It turned out to be a mixed day for Indian volleyball teams competing in the 17th Asian Games here, as the men’s team defeated Thailand 3-1 in the 5th-8th place classification match after the women suffered a 0-3 reverse to Hong Kong to finish 8th in the competition .
In the men’s semifinal round for 5th-8th place match at the Songnim Gymnasium, The Indian men showed rallied to beat the Thais in one hour and 28 minutes.
India lost the first game 22-25, but fought back strongly to claim the next three games 25-18 25-23 25-20 and garnered 97 total points to Thailand’s 86.
Govindarajan Ramakrishnan Vaishnav and Prabagaran were the joint top-scorers for India with 17 points each. In the women’s classification 7th-8th Place, India lost to Hong Kong 0-3 to finish eighth at the Ansan Sangroksu Gymnasium.
It turned out to be a no contest as the girls from Hong Kong proved to be much stronger than their Indian counterparts. After losing the first game 16-25 in 22 minutes, the Indian women fought bravely in the second but that was not enough as they narrowly went down 26-28 in an affair that lasted 29 minutes.
Hong Kong meant business in the third game as they won it 25-18 in 22 minutes to seal the issue in their favour. Raju Tiji top-scored for India with 12 points while M S Poornima was second best at nine.
Sau Mei Yeung was the star player for Hong Kong as she scored 25 points, followed by Hoi Lun Helen (10).
