Favourites keep clean slate in women’s field hockey

GUANGZHOU: Title contenders China, Japan and South Korea maintained their winning streak in the Asian Games women’s field hockey with easy wins on Tuesday.

China, seeking a hat-trick of titles, brushed aside Kazakhstan 3-0 to record their second win in the seven-nation round-robin league at the Aoti Hockey Centre.

Japan, runners-up to China four years ago, scored their third successive win in the competition, routing Doha bronze-medallists India 3-0.

Four-time champions South Korea, who went without a medal at Doha, beat Malaysia 4-0 after thrashing Thailand 5-0 and Kazakhstan 10-3 in previous matches.

The Korean girls led 1-0 at half-time with Park Mi-Hyun 27th minute goal, before pumping in three more in the second session through Cheon Seul-Ki, Kim Eun-Sil and Lee Seon-Ok.

Korean coach Lim Heung-Sin, frustrated at the numerous missed chances by his team, lashed out at the umpires for not awarding more penalty corners.

“I have never seen such umpiring, they were not good at all,” an angry Lim said. “But we should have still scored more goals.”

China beat Kazakhstan with three first-half goals through Ma Yibo, Zhao Yudiao and Song Qingling, but faltered against the rival defence in the second half.

“I think we made a lot of mistakes, but the Kazakh defence was tough,” said Chinese captain Fu Baorong.

“Many players in our team are playing their first Asian Games, so they will learn and improve as they go along. A lot is expected from us because we are the champions.”

Japan warmed up for Friday’s crucial match against the hosts with a dominant display against India as Miyuki Nakagawa and Kaori Chiba scored in the first 11 minutes and Mazuki Arai netted the third goal just before the final whistle.

“We have watched videos of Chinese matches and analysed their tactics,” said Japanese captain Yukari Yamamoto. “We have prepared well for that game.”