Japan win Women's Asia Cup

KUALA LUMPUR: Japan emerged champions of the Women’s Asia Cup after they beat South Korea 2-1 in the final at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil on Friday.

Two field goals from Japan’s Aki Mitsuhashi (27th) and Shiho Otsuka (53rd) were enough for the 2014 World Cup-bound side to seal their second title of the championship.

South Korea largely were lacklustre as captain and Player of the Tournament Kim Jong-eun’s late penalty corner in the 64th minute could not turn things around for the three-time champions (1985, 1993 and 1999).

The final was a repeat of the 2007 final when hosts Japan beat South Korea to the title 7-6 on penalties.

“What a fantastic match!” exclaimed Japan’s coach Yoo Seung-jin after the match.

“I’m very proud of my players. They really deserved this win. We wanted to meet South Korea in the final and it was a good fight,” he added.

“This was not a lucky win. We trained hard to prepare for this match as we knew they were tough opponents.”

In the third and fourth placing classification match, India took some consolation after missing out on next year’s World Cup by edging defending champions China 3-2 on penalties to clinch third place.

The match had ended in a 2-2 draw with goals in either half from India’s Anuradha Devi Thokchom (16th) and Vandana Katariya (31st) and China’s Yan Yan (50th) and Wu Mengrong (64th) forcing the game to be settled by a penalty shoot-out. The shoot-out also ended in a 2-2 deadlock with Liang Meiyu and De Jiaojiao scoring for China and India’s captain Ritu Rani and Anuradha scoring to force a sudden death shoot-out.

Going up first, Meiyu failed to score. Anuradha then turned heroine for India, slotting home the winning goal to condemn two-time champions China to fourth place – their worst ever finish in the tournament’s history.

China, champions in 1989 and 2009, were runners-up in 1993 and finished third for three consecutive championships in 1999, 2004 and 2007. Meanwhile, hosts Malaysia clinched fifth spot after beating Kazakhstan 5-1 with goals from Rabiatul Adawiyah Mohamed (10th), Fazilla Sylvester Silin (35th), Norazlin Sumantri (49th), Noor Hasliza Md Ali (59th) and Siti Noor Amarina Ruhani (68th).

Kazakhstan’s solitary goal came, courtesy of a field goal, from Olga Khonina in the 24th minute.

In the seventh and eight placing classification match, Taiwan battled back from a goal down in the first half to beat Hong Kong 3-1.