Entire country was seen in utter jubilation over Indian men’s hockey team bagging a medal in prestigious Olympic Games after a long period of forty one years. This country known for hockey champions and wizards like great Late Dhyan Chand had plunged into utter oblivion when the team would return home without winning a medal from most of the Olympic contests for many years. Since the spirit of resilience, hard work and positivity are imbibed deep into the Indian system, our hockey team showed that they can regain the lost Indian glory in the favourite pride game of hockey which people of yester years were looking at as if meant only for India to excel in. Who can forget the Indian hockey wizard Dhyan Chand who with his stick and ball would enthral the audience most of whom including Adolf Hitler watched with bewilderment, on the playground. We have lot of talent and many likes of Dhyan Chand can sprout from the Indian hockey turfs is no wishful thinking looking to how India fought back the mighty German team by a decisive 5-4 win to claim a bronze. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first to congratulate the team and spoke personally to the coach and some players as well much to their delight, saying that the day will remain etched in the memory of every Indian. President Ramnath Kovind congratulated the team by saying, “exceptional skills, resilience and determination”. The Vice President, The Defence Minister, the Sports Minister and all other leaders expressing joy felicitated the team over the long awaited win. Rahul Gandhi described it as “a well deserved victory.” Among the best analogy of the won medal came from the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh terming it as “The hockey bronze is worth its weight in gold”. Why not, any moment doing proud to this country is a matter of tremendous joy and that is why the win is a historic and proud moment for the nation. A nation having its glorious record of winning eight golds in hockey, a silver and three bronze medals and the first one since 1980, now is really historic. It will be long remembered how Simranjeet Singh recorded two fine field goals while Harmanpreet Singh and Hardik Singh both scored from penalty corners. However, after going down 3-1, India fought back and the penalty stroke was converted and another goal by Simranjeet brought new life in the fight with mighty Germans and the defence of Sreejesh did the final thing to end with India 5-4 tally and the win. In converting penalty corners, India needed lot to do at home which they, however, appeared to have done but still two chances were lost. Agreed, comparatively, facilities were far better this time provided to the players, coach was all professionally preparing the team and the like but it is the team, its tremendous hard work, spirit of doing something better and the zeal and ambition to bounce back and take more than leap frog towards the lost glory in the hockey which resulted in rightly claiming the medal. A people of 1.3 billion never short of talent in various disciplines of sports, especially in traditional favourite hockey, needs focussed attention for grooming, training and professionalising the existing and the potential talent so that in next Olympics, the country bags more medals of gold, silver and bronze. However, so far the medal tally has been five including the silver won by Mirabhai but the spirit of “Yeh Dil Mange More” should be the aim in sports contests like the Olympics.
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