Bangkok Asian Games - 1978

Bangkok - 1978
Theme : India, First in Asia - Olympic Gold Medal
On March 10, 1928 the first national hockey team left the shores of India to participate in the Amsterdam Olympic Games. The hockey competition was held before the rest of the Olympic events. En route to the final, India beat Austria 6-0, Belgium 9-0, Denmark 5-0, and Switzerland 6-0 in the semi-finals, to set up the title clash against Holland.

The final, held on May 26, 1928, aroused tremendous interest. Nearly 24,000 spectators, till then the biggest crowd for a hockey match, saw the game. India beat Holland 3 - 0 to win its first ever Olympic gold medal, and its first ever victory in a world tournament.

On May 29, 1928, when the prize giving ceremony was held at the Olympic Stadium, and Eric Pinniger lead the team to the victory stand, this marked the first time that a team from Asia had won any medal in the Olympics. Japan's Mikio Onda would also win a gold in the 1928 Olympic Games (in the triple jump event), but it was won later than the Indian gold.

The Indian team's performance revived interest in hockey, and overnight it became a world sport.
1978 Bangkok Asiad Hockey
Dates: December 9 - December 20, 1978
Athletes: 3,842 athletes from 25 countries
Debut Sports: Archery and Bowling
Top 3 Countries: Japan (70G, 58S, 49B), China (51G, 20S, 45B), South Korea (18G, 20S, 31B)
  • This would be the third time in the past 12 years that Bangkok was hosting the Asian Games. Islamabad, the original host, and later Singapore, backed out on holding the Games due to financial and other reasons. On the political front, Israel was expelled from the Asian Games.

  • India's results in hockey were: beat Malaysia 5-3, beat Hong Kong 7-0 and beat Sri Lanka 4-1.

  • Pakistan defeated Bangladesh 17-0, which is still an Asian Games record. Shahnaz Sheikh struck 7 goals in that match.

  • In the semi-finals, India beat Japan 2-0, while Pakistan beat Malaysia 5-2. In the final, Pakistan yet again beat India 1-0 to win the Asian Games gold.

Final Standings:

1 - Pakistan, 2 - India, 3 - Malaysia, 4 - Japan, 5 - Sri Lanka, 6 - Thailand, 7 - Hong Kong, 8 - Bangladesh

Indian Team:

Players Allen Schofeld (goalkeeper), Olympio Fernandes, Surjeet Singh, Dung Dung, Pramod Batlaw, Varinder Singh, Roger Magee, Vasudevan Bhaskaran, Ranbeer Singh, V. J. Philips, Ashok Kumar, Sukhbir Singh Grewal, B. P. Govinda, Surinder Singh, Merwyn Fernandes, Mohammed Yusuf, Ramesh Parameswaran
Officials  Dharam Singh (coach), Leslie Claudius (manager)