A new Era for Indian Hockey: Men’s team wins bronze

(Words: 490)

A determined Indian Men’s Hockey team finally made their way to the podium with a Bronze medal in Tokyo Olympics. In a game with many ups and down, India emerged as the winner in the bronze medal match against Germany. In Olympics, India ended a 41-year medal drought in hockey by defeating the world No.5 side Germany by 5-4.

The last time India went back home with an Olympic medal in hockey was in 1980 Moscow
Olympics, and with that the total number of gold medals won by the Indian hockey team in the Olympics went to eight.

Tokyo 2020: A heroic journey

Indian Men’s Hockey team went in the competition with full confidence, before coming to Tokyo, India played wonderfully against the world-class Argentina side and defeated them in their own backyard. The Tokyo campaign for India started with a 3-2 win over New Zealand.

After that India defeated Germany by 2-0 followed by a 3-1 win against Spain and Argentina. India defeated the host nation Japan comfortably by 5-3 in the group matches. India lost only one match against the world no.1 side Australia and finished second in their group after Australia.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Indian finished 4th in the group stage and was up against Belgium in the quarterfinals but India was unable to get past Belgium as they defeated India by 1-3. But in Tokyo, India was up against Great Britain, and this time India made the cut to the Semis by defeating Great Britain by 3-1 and went to the semis of the Olympics after 49 years.

And in the Semifinals, India’s hope to play in an Olympic final was shattered by the daunting Belgium team. The World no.2 side, Belgium, came back from a 1-2 deficit to beat the Indian team 5-2 in the Semi-Finals.

But, India was still in the hunt for bronze against the German side. In a roller-coaster bronze medal match, India came back from a two-goal deficit to win the match by 5-4. With 6 seconds on the clock and 5-4 on the scoreboard, the Indian team conceded a penalty corner and the bronze medal was one save away. The brilliance save from Indian goalkeeper, Sreejesh saw India winning their 12th Hockey medal at the Olympics.

The constant rise of the Indian Men’s Hockey team in the Olympics

The legendary record of the Indian Men’s team was on a decline from 1980 when India won the last medal at Olympics. But, from not qualifying in the 2008 Beijing Olympics to winning a bronze medal at Tokyo 2020, the Indian Men’s team has come a long way. In the 2012 London Olympics, the team finished 12th. Further in the 2016 Rio Olympics, the team finished 8th. This only shows that if we have the will and strength we can achieve anything that we have achieved before or have never achieved.