Rajgir (Bihar). Forgetting the sorrow of not being able to qualify for the Paris Olympics, India’s young and already fit women’s hockey team started the ‘Mission 2028 Los Angeles’ campaign by retaining the Asian Champions Trophy title. This is a new beginning for India’s men’s junior team and its experienced coach Harendra Singh, who won the World Cup in Lucknow in 2016. Since rejoining the team in April, Harendra has only one goal…to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics 2028. He believed that by winning the Asian Champions Trophy, the preparations for the World Cup 2026 and Olympics 2028 can be started on the right foot.
1 over China in the final. After the 0-0 victory, captain Salima Tete said, “I am confident that this victory will inspire more and more girls to play hockey. I am happy that we could give the gift of this victory to our country and fans.” Harendra’s focus has been on improving the fitness level of the Indian team and it was evident in this tournament that the players really put a lot of effort into it. Have worked hard. Salima said, “We are celebrating this victory but our goals are long term. We have to work hard every day and give our best in every tournament. We want to hoist the Indian flag in every tournament.
The Indian team won all seven matches in the tournament. The best thing has been the mutual coordination from both the flanks. The defense performed brilliantly, conceding only two goals while India scored 29 goals in the tournament, out of which 15 were field goals. Many stars were born from this tournament, including 20 year old young striker Deepika. Deepika scored 11 goals, including four field goals. Sangeeta Kumari scored four goals, Preeti Dubey, Navneet Kaur and Lalremsiami scored three goals each. Seventeen year old Sunelita Toppo destroyed the opposition defense with her brilliant dribbling and running from the flanks.
Udita, Sushila Chanu, Jyoti and Neha Goyal gave strong performances. Goalkeepers Savita Punia and Bichhu Devi Kharibam did not have to work hard. But the weak link in the team’s performance was the penalty corner. India got countless penalty corners in every match but the conversion rate was very low. In the semi-final against Japan, 16 penalty corners were wasted, so we will have to work on this. The new era of Indian women’s hockey is going to be inaugurated through the first women’s hockey league of four teams to be held in Ranchi from 12 to 26 January. Just before that, this title win has given good publicity to the game in the country.
Disclaimer: Prabhasakshi has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.