Tokyo Olympics Qualifiers: India beat Russia 4-2 in men's hockey

In Men's Hockey, India beat Russia 4 - 2 in first leg of Tokyo Olympics Qualifiers at Bhubaneswar in Odisha. Mandeep Singh's brace and goals from Harmanpreet Singh and Sunil steered India to a comfortable victory over Russia in Friday's match. Andrey Kuraev and Semen Matkovskiy scored one goal each for Russia. India captain Manpreet Singh was adjudged Player of the Match.

   

Earlier, Indian women's team took giant leap towards Olympic qualification with a near-flawless performance to hammer United States of America 5-1 in the first-leg of the two-match FIH Qualifier. 

Dragflicker Gurjit Kaur struck brace while Lilima Minz, Sharmila Devi and Navneet Kaur were the other scorers. USA's consolation goal came from a penalty stroke converted by Erin



Matson.

Indian men and women teams will play their respective second leg matches against the same opponents today. The winners at the end of the two-match qualifier will seal their places in the 2020 Tokyo Games.

In another match, Indian Hockey women's team beat United States of America 5-1 in Olympic qualifiers at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Friday.  At half time, India was leading by 1-0.

A short-while from now, the Indian men's team will face Russia.

Both the Indian teams will play matches against Russia and USA tomorrow also. The aggregate winners at the end of the two-match qualifier (each for men and women) will seal their places in the 2020 Tokyo Games.