Volley ball for India vs Korea

Spikers put aside problems plaguing the sport back home to upset medal contenders

- VISHNU PRASAD

FOR India's Asian Games contingent, it was the first of what everyone will hope is a long list of pleasant surprises. For Indian volleyball, it marked some light at the end of what has been a long tunnel.

In one of the best results in Indian volleyball in quite a while, the men's team downed South Korea 3-2 in a thrilling encounter at the Linping Sports Centre Gymnasium in Hangzhou on Wednesday. For a scale of what an upset that is, India is ranked 73rd in the world while South Korea are 27th and silver medalists at the 2018 Asian Games. In fact, so good have they been at this level that the last time they exited the Asiad without a medal was in 1962. In contrast, India have not won an Asian Games medal in 37 years.

On Wednesday though, all those numbers mattered for little as the Indians matched their opponents spike for spike, block for block. The first set, even though it eventually ended 27-25 in the Koreans' favour, showed that India were up for the fight.