NEW DELHI, Jul 5: The Indian hockey team arrived back home today after a strong campaign at the Six-Nations Invitational Hockey Tournament and after bagging silver medal in the Champions Trophy in London.
Following a good show at the six-Nations Invitational hockey tournament, the men’s squad has also rose to fifth spot in the official FIH World Rankings.
At the six-nation tournament, the team played in Olympic format with a 16 member-squad in order to acclimatise the players for the upcoming Olympics format.
Speaking after arriving back in the country, defender cum penalty corner specialist Harmanpreet Singh said,”This was a great opportunity for me to play with the senior members and to learn so much from them. Playing on the 16 member Olympic format was challenging but also helped us gauge what we learnt at the training.”
On the other hand, PR Sreejesh, who had led the team at the Champions Trophy, said, “As proud as we are at our achievement, we are also very grateful and overwhelmed by the reactions from the support we have received from home. After a long tour, now we are focussed on the Rio Games and ensuring a strong showing there so that we can make our supporters proud. We will have a few days break to rejuvenate ourselves before we resume the camp at SAI Bengaluru and get ready for Rio.”
Chief Coach Roelant Oltmans said, “Our aim was always to win a medal at the Champions Trophy. We have achieved that. It is on the backburner now though. We have to look ahead and focus on the Olympics.”
“The team deserves a much-needed break after all the hard work, and then, very soon, it will be back to the grind as we sharpen up for the all-important Olympic Games,” he concluded. (UNI)
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