NEW DELHI, Oct. 3 -- Forty-four years is an eternity in sports, and here it represents an interminable period of waiting and unfulfilled dreams. On Friday night in Kakamigahara at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, that agonising wait dissolved into unbridled joy as the Indian women's hockey team defeated defending champions and Paris Olympics silver medallists China 1-0 in an intense final. With the monumental victory, they claimed their first Asian Games gold medal since their 1982 triumph at the Shivaji Stadium here when the women's competition debuted, and with it punched a direct ticket to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The stage was set for a titanic final clash between the top two teams in Asia. On one side stood the formidable Chinese, t...