After their impeccable run in this year’s Tokyo Olympics, stars of Indian men’s and women’s hockey sat under one roof at India Today Conclave 2021. Indian men’s hockey team won the bronze medal in Tokyo Olympics defeating Germany by 5-4 in a riveting contest. This was Indian hockey team’s first medal in Olympics after a long gap of 41 years. On the other hand, the Indian women's hockey team etched their name in history by qualifying for the semifinals for the first time. However, they were unable to win a medal as they lost in a close game against Great Britain by 3-4. Indian men’s hockey captain Manpreet Singh, goalkeeper Sreejesh Parattu Raveendran, women hockey goalkeeper Savita Punia Sandhu and women hockey captain Rani Rampal recalled many things regarding their Olympic campaign. They also spoke on how this year’s performance will inspire the generation to achieve something big in the coming years.
Those last 6 seconds
Indian veteran goalkeeper Sreejesh highlighted what all happened during the last few seconds of their semi-final clash with Germany. He said, ” When Germany was awarded the penalty corner, we had only one thing in mind and that was what next. Those last 6 seconds were very crucial moments of the entire hockey campaign in the Tokyo Olympics 2020. We thought that we may lose the medal in these seconds. We didn’t have time to strategise much so we planned in a hurry who’ll do what during that time. Those 6 seconds stood between us and the medal. All we needed was to do defend well. We quickly took our positions remembering all that we did in our training and focused on stopping the ball from going inside the net.”
2016 Rio Olympics were the turning point
Indian women hockey players Rani Rampal and Savita Punia said that Rio Olympics in 2016 was the turning point for the women’s hockey team. In 2016, Indian women's hockey team qualified after 26 years. At Rio, India may have not won any of their matches but it helped them believe that they can do something. During the period between the two Olympics, the team practiced well and played some good hockey. Both the players admitted that the team may have not started the Tokyo Olympics campaign on a good note but the wins in the last two pool games against South Africa and Ireland boosted their confidence. Then they took it game by game and were able to reach the semis. They learned from the mistakes of Rio and tried their best in Tokyo Olympics.
Those tough times of COVID-19
Many players from both men’s and women’s teams had tested positive for COVID-19. Rampal highlighted the whole situation and said, “Many players from the teams were COVID positive. Players were quarantined for 14 days. It was a tense situation. During that time there was a shortage of oxygen and beds in the whole country. Every morning we use to wake up and pray that we don’t hear any kind of casualty from anyone’s phone. However, where the teams were quarantined, we were getting healthy food thrice a day. We recovered soon but could only start our practices after some time as there were chances of injuries.”
Start of a new era in hockey
All the four shining stars of Indian hockey admitted that these Olympics can be regarded as the start of a new era. "In a state like Kerala, where children are more into cricket, football and volleyball, now they have started playing hockey with PVC pipes," goalkeeper Sreejesh said.
“We have become the role models for the coming generation. There was no role model for us as India last won gold in hockey in 1980. We were not born at that time so didn’t have anyone to idolize. Now children and people have seen us and have started idolizing us,” Manpreet added.
"This time people have woken up early in the morning and have watched our games. They have supported us and have felt how much hard work and effort are required to reach this stage. Even girls have started playing hockey seeing our achievements.
