Indian Men And Women Look To Make A Mark In Olympic Hockey

By siliconindia | Friday, 05 August 2016, 11:09 Hrs

The team to Rio wore a settled look for last two years in which they won the Asian Games gold in Incheon and Commonwealth Games silver in Glasgow in 2014.

'Captain cool' goalkeeper Sreejesh will look to form a wall under the bar while the likes of VR Raghnath, Kothajit Singh, and Rupinder Pal Singh will form the core of the defence.

India has the most number of gold medals in Olympic history but coach Oltmans has insisted to live in the present.

"We will be hoping to improve on their 12th place showing at the 2012 London Games. We know about the fantastic past of Indian hockey, but we live in the present. We are aiming for the best possible result. I can try to influence these guys. Sometimes, I succeed. Sometimes, they don't listen," said Roelant Oltmans, who is in his sixth Olympics.

"When expectations are only on my shoulders, I don't care. I can cope with that pressure. That people are talking like that about the team again, is because we had a good year. But it should not influence the performance of the players. It is my job to make sure that they do not get carried away and listen to the coaching staff."

Meanwhile, the 13th ranked women's team are upbeat to be in Games after a gap of 36 years and they also had a similar build up when Sushila Chanu was made the skipper replacing Rita Rani as a disciplinary measure.

"Coach (Neil Hagwood) has told us to score early goals and not allow easy goals during the last quarter," defender Deep Grace Ekka said.

Men's team

Goalkeeper: PR Sreejesh (c); Defenders: VR Raghunath, Kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar; Harmanpreet Singh; Midfielders: Danish Mujtaba, K Chinglensana Singh, Manpreet Singh, Sardar Singh, SK Uthappa, Devinder Walmiki; Forwards: SV Sunil, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Nikkin Thimmaiah, Rupinder Pal Singh, Vikas Dahiya, Pradeep Mor

Women's team

Goalkeeper: Savita; Defenders: Sushila Chanu (c), Deep Grace Ekka, Deepika, Namita Toppo, Sunita Lakra; Midfielders: Navjot Kaur, Monika, Renuka Yadav, Lilima Minz; Forward: Nikki Pradhan, Anuradha Devi T, Poonam Rani, Vandana Kataria, Rani Rampal, Preeti Dubey, Rajani Etimarpu, Hnialum Lal Ruat Feli.

Source: PTI