India won the Women’s Junior Hockey Asia Cup title for the first time by defeating four-time champions South Korea 2-1 on Sunday. Annu performed exceptionally well throughout the tournament. After the victory, the team celebrated fiercely in Bengaluru.
Anu and Neelam scored for India while Park Seo Yeon scored the lone goal for Korea. After a goalless first quarter, India took the lead in the 22nd minute through Anu’s penalty corner goal.
Putting behind the disappointment of the semi-final against Japan, Anu put India ahead 1-0 when she fired in from the left of the goalkeeper. However, South Korea made it 1-1 three minutes later thanks to Park Seo Yeon’s goal.
Neelam put India ahead 2-1 in the 41st minute by scoring from the right side of the South Korean goalkeeper, which proved to be the decisive score. After this, the Indian team won by maintaining its lead in the last quarter.
South Korea got many chances to score in the form of penalty corners but the team could not take advantage of it. Earlier, India’s best performance in the Women’s Junior Asia Cup was in 2012 when the team reached the final for the first time in Bangkok but lost 2-5 to China.
Indian captain Preeti, who was named the player of the match, said she had chalked out her strategy for the tie after playing out a 1-1 draw against Korea in the round-robin stage. He said that we were well aware of the specific areas in which we needed to work in order to defeat Korea.
Hockey India announced a cash award of Rs 2 lakh to each player of the title-winning team while Rs 1 lakh to each member of the support staff. India remained invincible in the tournament.
The team also made it to the Women’s Junior World Cup 2023 to be held in Chile this year. Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey said, “We are extremely proud that the Indian junior women’s team has won the Junior Asia Cup title for the first time.”