India on Thursday ended their drought for an Olympic medal in the field of hockey as they claimed bronze after defeating Germany in a thrilling match for the third place in the men’s category with a 5-4 win. This is for the first time in 41 years that an Indian hockey men’s team has been able to win a medal in the Olympics after their gold medal win in Moscow Games in 1980.
Indian team’s forward player Simranjeet Singh was the star performer for his side as he scored two goals for his team which also included the winning hit. But it was Germany who had taken the lead early on in the game by scoring in the second minute through the mood of Russia, which put the Indian team firmly on the back foot.
Even though Simranjeet Singh was able to equalise for India, Germany remained ahead in the contest as they went on to score two more goals to take a vital 3-1 lead in the second quarter.
“It’s a dream come true. We’ve made 1.3 billion Indians proud by finishing on the podium,” said Simranjeet.
Well in Germany looked from favourites to win the contest, India did pull one back late in the second quarter and even went on to equalise through the likes of Hardik Singh and Harmanpreet Singh. At the half-time break, the score line was 3-3.
The next two goals were scored by Rupinder pal Singh and Simranjeet, whose final goal of the match proved to be the decisive strike as Germany fought incredibly hard right till the end, pulling one back while forcing the Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh to be at the top of his game.
“We’re very angry at ourselves that we got India back into the game. They’re a great team. You can’t give away opportunities like that to a fantastic team like that,” Germany’s head coach Kais al Saadi said.
The achievement of the men’s hockey team sent the country into ecstatic celebrations which also included a surprise phone call made by the Prime Minister to India captain Manpreet Singh and its Australian coach Graham Reid and assistant coach Piyush Dubey.
All eyes will now be focused on the women’s team in hockey which is going to take on great Britain in a contest for the third place. India had earlier lost to Argentina by a margin of 2-1 in the semi-final and if they manage to beat Great Britain, India will be adding one more bronze medal to its overall tally of medals.
India have one so far four medals in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics which includes silver medal for weightlifter Mirabai Chanu and three bronze medals that have been won by badminton player PV Sindhu, boxer Lovlina Borgohain and the men’s hockey team.
India are also assured of a silver medal at least in the wrestling category as Ravi Kumar Dahiya, who qualified for the final of the 57kg category by getting the better of Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev, will be facing Zaur Uguev of Russia in the summit clash.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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