The Indian Men’s Team created history, as they won the Gold Medal in Kabaddi for a record seventh time in a row. India defeated Iran in a thriller in the final at the Incheon Asian Games. In the semifinals, India had defeated South Korea, while Iran had defeated Pakistan in the semifinals. With this, India’s Gold tally has gone up to 11 at Incheon 2014.
India had defeated Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand in the group stage. The Men’s Kabaddi final was a replica of 2010 Asian Games where India and Iran had battled it out for the Gold. India had defeated Iran 37-20 in the previous edition.
Iran started ferociously and took a 21-13 lead in the first half. India bounced back strongly in the second half to make it 27-25 in the end. It was a close, nail-biting contest, which finally went in India’s favour. Both teams won a ‘lona’ each.
Kabaddi was introduced at the Asian Games in 1990 at Beijing. India stated with the Gold and continued thereafter to win the yellow metals in 1994 (Hiroshima), 1998 (Bangkok), 2002 (Busan), 2006 (Doha) and 2010 (Guangzhou). They did not find much difficulties to win the Gold at Incheon 2014 too.
Earlier, the Indian women won their second successive Kabaddi Gold at Asian Games when they defeated Iran in the final. Women’s Kabaddi was introduced at the Asian Games in Bangkok 2010 where India emerged victorious with an easy win over Thailand in the final.
