India won the men’s kabaddi gold medal at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China, by a razor-thin score of 33-29 over Iran.
This was the eighth gold medal won by the Indian men’s kabaddi team at an Asian Games. India lost to Iran in the Asian Games semi-final in Jakarta in 2018. Prior to that, since kabaddi made its Asian Games debut at Beijing 1990, India has won all seven gold medals. India was placed under strain early on by a powerful Iranian defence led by captain Fazel Atrachali.
But by continuously grabbing points, India’s captain Pawan Sehrawat and raider Naveen Kumar kept his team in contention.
With his multi-point raids, Mohammad Reza Shadlu completed the task for Iran quickly. With around three minutes left in the half, Iran lead India 12-9.
However, the Indian defence, led by vice-captain Sunil Kumar, enabled India put Iran through an all-out and lead Iran by four points at the half, 17-13. Important critical information was also contributed by Aslam Inamdar and Naveen Kumar. Despite the fact that Iran tied the score at 25 all with 10 minutes remaining in the game, despite India having opened the scoring in the second half. Then, Pawan Sehrawat led India’s comeback and executed a raid to remove captain Fazel Atrachali. As India led 28-25, Mohammad Esmaeil Nabibakhsh was also sent out. Time was on India’s side, therefore Naveen Kumar went in for the game’s final raid to secure a point and India’s victory.