Press Trust of India
Rio de Janeiro, August 6: After a fairytale run to the Rio Games following a gap of 36 years, an upbeat India will now look to begin from where they had left against Japan when they clash in their women’s hockey opener in a pool B match of the XXXI Olympiad here Sunday.
The women’s team had beaten the same opponents in a classification match in June last year to finish fifth in the World League semifinals and qualify for the Olympics, for the first time after Moscow 1980.
Tenth-ranked Japan may be three notches higher but the women in blue, coached by Aussie Neil Hawgood, are hopeful of a good start to take the momentum forward.
“The coach has told us to give our best in the first match, that will set the tone for the remainder league matches,” defender Deep Grace Ekka, who was part of the Asian Games Incheon 2014 bronze medal-winning team, told stated here Friday.
With 106 caps to her name, Deep will form the backbone of India’s defence along with captain Sushila Chanu who took over the reins after veteran Ritu Rani was dropped less than a month before the Olympics for attitude problems. Deep however, asserted that it won’t be a problem for the side.
“It will not be a problem. We have been practicing together for a long time and know each other well. We are just focused to do well tomorrow (Sunday),” she added.
Meanwhile, the captaincy will be a big test for Manipuri defender Chanu who had captained the team in Ritu’s absence during their tour of Australia earlier this year. In Ritu’s absence, she will hope that Rani Rampal fires on all cylinders and will also depend a lot on goalkeeper Savita Punia, who has been India’s ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ in recent times.
Having coached the Indian team from July 2012 to November 2014, a phase when they had won the Asiad bronze and a silver in the Asian Championships 2013, Hawgood will look to replicate the success in his second stint.
“The second stint is the same as the first, progress from the group to another level is important. Our goal is simple, first to make the last eight and that means winning two games,” said Hawgood, who joined back the team in November last year.
“When we achieve that it is just one game you have to win to have a chance to proceed, that is what we want to do, put ourselves into that position,” Hawgood added.