Olympic champion shooter Abhinav Bindra on Sunday congratulated Indian athletes for their Asian Games campaign but called for greater urgency in strengthening the country's high-performance ecosystem with the Los Angeles Olympics less than two years away. India finished at the fourth place on the medal table with 85 medals, including 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze. "Congratulations to every Indian athlete and to Team India on the Asian Games. A Games campaign is never just the few days we see on television. It is years of early mornings, injuries, doubts, missed occasions and countless hours of work. "So first and foremost, enormous respect to our athletes and also to their families who live this journey with them and make sacrifices that are rarely seen. To the coaches, support staff, federations, SAI, the Government and everyone working behind the scenes, THANK YOU !," Bindra wrote on 'X'. "There have been some terrific breakthrough performances ...
The SAFF Championship clash between India and Kuwait in Bengaluru witnessed several ugly brawls with on Tuesday. India coach Igor Stimac was sent off following argument with the match officials and Kuwait players. That was not all as two players, one each from India and Kuwait, were also sent off due to ugly fouls. This was the second time in the 2023 edition of the SAFF Championship that Stimac was sent off from the ground. Earlier, he was shown a red card during a match against Pakistan. Tuesday's match against Kuwait ended in a 1-1 draw. Both teams are in the semi-finals but India finished second in the points table.
Stimar first received a yellow card for disrupting play. Then he was sent off for having a go at the match officials. Stimac engaged in an animated argument with match officials and was eventually flashed a red card in the 81st minute.
@stimac_igor pic.twitter.com/9XsezuKehW
— GKFC Ultra (@gkfcultra) June 27, 2023
But the harsh moments did not end there as India's Rahim Ali and Kuwait's Al Qallaf were sent off. The melee ensued after Qallaf pushed down India's Sahal Abdul Samad in the 84th minute and Rahim, in turn, pushed the Kuwait player to the ground. After that there was not enough time for either side to force a result.
@ttovino pic.twitter.com/outwXCLYmx
— GKFC Ultra (@gkfcultra) June 27, 2023
Sunil Chhetri worked his magic but India had to split points with Kuwait after an acrimonious 1-1 draw in their last group match in the SAFF Championship on Tuesday. Chhetri had put India on the road to victory with an injury-time strike in the first half but an own goal by Anwar Ali in the added time of the second half spoiled the home side's march. This was also the first goal India conceded in nine matches.
The result meant that India and Kuwait ended up on seven points but the latter topped Group A on better goal average.
India will play Lebanon in the semifinal while Kuwait will take on either Bangladesh or Maldives.
Already qualified for the semifinal, both India and Kuwait pressed forward from the whistle, giving some entertaining moments.
With PTI inputs
from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/yAqj74N
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