As the one-year countdown for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games begins, the men and women hockey teams of India are gearing up for the mega tournament.
Tokyo Olympic Games, scheduled from July 24 to August 9, 2020, with hockey preliminary round events for men and women starting from July 25. The Indian men and women's teams are working towards ensuring that they are part of the Indian contingent.
This constant reminder also provides a boost for players to improve upon their individual game and ensure they are doing everything they can, to contribute to the team's goals.
"We have a countdown chart and we frequently remind ourselves in team meetings about how many days are left for the qualifying and how many days before the first hockey match at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, we are on our toes to qualify," men's hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh said.
"It's not just us players but the coaching staff to remind us about days left for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the goals we need to achieve ahead of this milestone event. We have set short timelines to work on our grey areas. We have set short-term goals which include areas to work on in training, how we intend to play against a particular team at the upcoming event such as Olympic Test event, Belgium Tour and what implications this would have on the Qualifying event in November. We have mapped out every detail to ensure we do better than our previous best," Singh added.
"Another most important aspect is to take care of ourselves and avoid any kind of injuries. In this Olympic cycle, we have had key players out of action for nearly 8-10 months and this is something we definitely want to avoid in this crucial year ahead," he said.
Meanwhile, Indian women's team captain Rani Rampal said, "We have all made personal sacrifices to ensure the team is put ahead of everything else and we are working towards one goal which is to qualify for the Olympics. It's very important for us to reinstate that qualifying for Rio Olympics was not a one-off incident and that hockey fans can expect the women's team to create good results at major competitions."
She further added that the recent success of fellow Indian women in other disciplines is an inspiration for her team to exceed expectations.
"The recent performances of Hima Das and Dutee Chand prove that Indian women are rising to the occasion and are working towards making India a dominant contingent at the world level. Their performances inspire us too and these are athletes we are in touch with and we often end up sharing notes on our training and competitions. It's important to have such positive results in the build-up to our qualification event and we are really hoping to play in front of a home crowd in November as the last time we played in India was in 2012 Olympic Qualifier in New Delhi," Rani added.
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