Indian girls miss out crucial Gold

s2h Team



Vandana Katariya was a forlorn figure in the entire medals award ceremony that lasted almost an hour after the final match between Japan and India. She had her own reason. Just a mere sixteen seconds before the hooter, Rani Rampal created an opportunity for India to score the elusive equalizer that can take the Asian Games final to shoot out. Rani cleverly found a gap among almost half a dozen defenders inside the circle. Yet the veteran perfectly timed the ball in her through ball that crossed a maze of legs and rolled to the right of goalie who was already charging and in that process fell 5,6 yards away from cage. All Vandana, who was just crouch-standing facing the goalie, should do was to gently deflect the ball into the empty goal. But she harried, carried away at the heat of moment. Her push was just fraction of degree wrong-angled. The ball agonizingly rolled a couple of inches to the left post. It was misfortune that the ball moved the way it did. For Vandana, who scored one of the beautiful solo goals of the Jakarta Asian hockey meet --- it was against Korea -- its heart-breaking moment, and it was.