Medals haul makes up for hockey letdown

Hong Kong edged out Macau 6-5 on penalty strokes to clinch fifth place in the six-team hockey competition at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau.

Hong Kong finished level with Macau, 2-2, at full-time. But the deadlock remained after extra-time and the game went into penalty strokes with Hong Kong winning.

'It was a good result for Hong Kong as this was the first time we took part in an indoor tournament at international level. We had a number of close games, especially against South Korea,' said Hong Kong Hockey Association president Sarinder Dillon.

Hong Kong lost a golden opportunity to share points with Korea when they missed a last-minute penalty stroke and lost 5-4. They also lost 8-2 to favourites Iran, 6-0 to India and drew 4-4 with Macau in the preliminary round-robin competition.

Iran won the gold medal when they beat Korea, while in the third-place play-off, India defeated Malaysia to take home the bronze medal.

In the overall medals count for the games, which ended yesterday, Hong Kong were third with 15 gold medals, nine silver and 11 bronze.