India v China in Asian Games women's hockey final for gold and LA 2028 spot
India's women's hockey team meet defending champions China in the Asian Games final at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Kakamigahara, Japan, on Friday, with the title and a place at the LA 2028 Olympics at stake. A victory would end India's 44-year wait for Asian Games gold.
India's only previous Asian Games women's hockey gold came in 1982, the year the event debuted for women; subsequent final appearances in 1998 and 2018 ended with silver after losses to South Korea and Japan. China enter the match as defending champions and have won four of the last six women's hockey titles at the Asian Games, including gold at Hangzhou 2023. This final therefore pits a nation seeking a first title since 1982 against a recent regional powerhouse.
India dominated Pool B, scoring 66 goals in five wins: 19-0 v Uzbekistan, 17-1 v Indonesia, 20-0 v Thailand, 3-1 v hosts Japan and 7-0 v Singapore. Their semi-final against South Korea was tighter; Ishika broke the deadlock late in the third quarter and captain Salima Tete added a fourth-quarter goal to secure a 2-0 victory. After the match India chief coach Sjoerd Marijne said, "For us it was really important to stay calm and have patience, and I think we did that really well."
China completed Pool A with five wins without conceding in regulation time, scoring 46 goals across victories of 13-0 v Bangladesh, 10-0 v Chinese Taipei, 4-0 v Malaysia, 3-0 v South Korea and 16-0 v Kazakhstan. Their semi-final with hosts Japan finished 0-0 in regulation before China prevailed 4-2 in the shootout to progress to the final.
Marijne has warned his side about the challenge China present, saying, "We have confidence, but we also realise that China is a very good team. They are still No. 4 in the world," he said. "We did really well at the World Cup, better than them, but still they have a lot of experience."
India's leading scorer at the Asian Games is Deepika Sehrawat with 21 goals, 19 of them from penalty corners; Navneet Kaur has 10 and Rutuja Pisal seven. Deepika has spent considerable time on the bench in India's last two matches. China have attacking threats in Zhong Jiaqi (nine goals) and Chen Yi and Zhang Ying (seven each). The teams met earlier this year at the World Cup in Amsterdam, that game finishing 2-2 with Navneet Kaur and Deepika Sehrawat on the scoresheet for India.
Across 28 meetings between the two nations China hold a narrow advantage with 12 wins to India's 11 and five draws. The final brings together the only two teams to win all five of their pool matches at these Games, and neither side has been beaten in the tournament.
The final will be played at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium in Kakamigahara, Japan, on Friday and will be streamed live on Sony LIV; it will be telecast on Sony Sports 2 and Sony Sports 5 with regional-language coverage on Sony Sports 3 (Hindi) and Sony Sports 4 (Tamil, Telugu and Kannada). The match will decide the Asian Games gold medal and the available qualification place for the LA 2028 Olympics.