WORLD
CUP KABADDI : INDIA, JAPAN, IRAN ADVANCE TO LAST EIGHT
- By Ranjeet Dalvi
Panvel. New Mumbai, Jan 25th : Holders and firm favourites
India , last time runners up Iran, and rising power in
kabaddi Japan advanced to the quarter finals of the second
World Cup Kabaddi Tournament at the Karnala Sports Academy
here in Panvel today. Also making it to the knockout stage
were India’s neighbour Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri
Lanka alongwith Malaysia and Thailand. India made it by
sailing through against emerald isle Sri Lanka 47-14 with
Manpreet Singh and Rakesh Kumar having an enjoyable run
against their not so equipped rivals. Japan scored a facile
victory over West Indies team that showed remarkable improvement
in their second outing. Japan were anchored by their raider
Kokei Ito playing his second World Cup. Ito did the bulk
of scoring alongwith Hiromi Takahashi to help Japan win
66-34.
Bangladesh scored their third straight win in pool “C”
when they overcame Italy consisting of players of Indian
origin at 70-36. Bangladesh have to thank the duo of Al-Mamud
and Mohammed Mozannal Haque for their victory. For Italy
Major Singh , their most accomplished player impressed.
The Italian scored 16 bonus points which underlines their
technique.
Iran too registered their third straight victory in group
“B” to advance further. They beat United Kingdom
73-17 as Arif Fojerdi, Naser Nazari and Ramezan Ali played
havoc in the opposition ranks. Nepal, who had beatern
United Kingdom won their crucial match against Korea 31-28.
This was the closest tie so far in the tournament. For
that Nepal should be indebted to Motilal Mahato and Sajyay
Shreshta the mainstays of the team. For Korea Hon Seob
You put up a fight scoring twelve points including seven
bonus points.
Malaysia looking more like a team from Tamilnadu due to
majority of their players being of that origin lost to
Japan 24-37 but that did not matter as their earlier victory
over West Indies was sufficient for them to qualify. Thailand
crushed Afghanistan 57-29 to take second place in pool
“C” behind Bangladesh.
It was a auspicious day for Kabaddi as the Social Welfare
Minister of Iran Dr. Mohammed Abbasi arrived in India
specially to watch his team in action. This is enough
proof that Iran has taken this game seriously. Dr. Abbasi
felt games that originated from Asia need to be projected
properly to the western world especially kabaddi, which
exemplifies team work like any other sport of that kind.
He felt that India alongwith all asian neighbours should
unitedly develop indigenous games like Wrestling, Kabaddi,
Weightlifting and become super powers in sports. Iran
has already reached the summit in Football, Wrestling
and Weightlifting
The Quarter Final Lineup
is:
India V/s Malaysia, Bangladesh V/s Nepal,
Iran V/s Thailand, Sri Lanka V/s Japan.
RESULTS:
India bt. Sri Lanka 47-14, Thailand bt Afghanistan 57-29,
Bangladesh bt Italy 70-36, Japan bt. West Indies 66-34,
Korea by. England 55-27, Nepal bt United Kingdom 54-24
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