GIFU, Japan, May 15: Lee Jung-Son struck home a game-deciding goal to give South Korea a 3-2 win over India for their second straight win in the men's event at the Prince Takamado field hockey tournament on Saturday.

India opened the scoring when Sandeep Singh hit into the centre of the Korean goal off a penalty corner in the seventh minute, while Lee completed a passing play to fire an equalizer two minutes later.

The Korean side kept up the momentum, taking penalty corners in the 13th, 15th and 16th minutes and getting ahead 2-1 three minutes into the second half when Im Jong-U quickly collected a rebound in goal-mouth confusion.

His side threatened the Indian goal repeatedly afterwards, with Lee finally pushing one into the goal in the 42nd minute to streatch the lead.

In the 52nd minute Arjun Halappa produced the last pass on a cross from the right for a goal from Tushar Khandker, but neither side could add a goal afterwards.

In the second game, Takuya Kodama scored twice to lead Japan to a 5-2 win over China in the four-team competition.

South Korea led the standings with a 2-0 record, ahead of Japan and India with 1-1 and China 0-2.

In the women's competition, China downed South Korea 2-0 for a second straight win, while Japan overwhelmed India 9-0 with Sakae Morimoto scoring a hat-trick and Keiko Miura scoring twice.

Japan and South Korea have 1-1 records ahead of winless China.-AFP