Indian women target hockey gold to seal Tokyo Olympic berth
Captain Rani Rampal bent on banishing the World Cup demons
Former champions India will have to recover from their medal-less World Cup campaign as they look to clinch the title at the 18th Asian Games and seal a Tokyo Olympics berth when the women’s hockey competition begins here today
Indian women’s team had won the gold medal at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi and ended runner up to South Korea in 1998 in Bangkok.
They have managed to return with at least a medal in all the nine editions, including a bronze at the 2014 Games at Incheon, South Korea.
At world No. 9, Indian women’s team are the top-ranked side in the competition and will open their campaign against hosts Indonesia, ranked as low as 64, in a Pool B match here today.
However, India’s real test would be against defending champions Korea (ranked 10), China and Japan.
Both China (ranked 11) and Japan (ranked 14) are in Pool A and India will not clash with them before the semi-finals.
Clubbed in Pool B, India will face their toughest test in the league stage against Korea on August 25. They play Kazakhstan on August 21 and conclude the Pool engagement with a clash against Thailand on August 27.
Rani Rampal and Co. are still recovering from their heartbreaking World Cup quarter-final loss to Ireland. The women’s team had entered the World Cup quarter-finals after 40 years but the defeat against Ireland via penalty shoot-out is still rankling the Indian players, especially captain Rampal, who had missed her shoot-out stroke for the first time in her career.
Before the Games, the lowintensity camp in Bengaluru, which focused more on recovery after the World Cup, coupled with some sensible talk by the team management has allowed the team to regroup.