Indian Hockey Team Can Win Medal At Tokyo Olympics, Says PR Sreejesh

Obtaining encountered both of those achievements and failure from shut quarters in a job spanning fourteen a long time, national team goalkeeper PR Sreejesh thinks a “substantially-enhanced” India has the opportunity to break its Olympic medal jinx in Tokyo following calendar year. The Indian men’s hockey team has a prosperous Olympic heritage, successful an unparalleled 8 gold besides a silver and two bronze medals. India’s previous achievements at the quadrennial sporting extravaganza, while, arrived 40 a long time in the past in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where by they won the previous of their 8 gold medals.

Nevertheless, Sreejesh feels that Indian hockey has progressed by leaps and bounds in current moments.

“I sense like there is not substantially of a variance now, we have demonstrated that in our FIH Professional League matches previously this calendar year, that we can defeat anybody, and not just defeat, but also dominate them with our fashion of enjoy.

“With a person calendar year remaining for our preparations, I imagine it (Tokyo Olympics) is heading to be the biggest event for me as very well, and something tells me that it is heading to be a substantial calendar year for Indian hockey,” he explained.

“We can genuinely carry that elusive Olympic medal again to our region if we conduct to our opportunity in Tokyo following calendar year,” Sreejesh was quoted as indicating in a Hockey India release.

The 32-calendar year-old expert goalkeeper, who experienced represented India in two Olympics (2012 and 2016), is standing at the twilight of his job and, by his possess admission, he has superior “aspirations” from the postponed Tokyo Games.

“The Tokyo Olympics is genuinely something that I glimpse ahead to with substantial aspirations. We have managed to carry in so a lot of improvements throughout a variety of features of our recreation, with our physical fitness becoming even greater than most teams in the earth,” the previous captain explained.

“I imagine we have genuinely enhanced on our complex side of points with a very good composition, and introduced extra flair and dynamism to our attacking. I see so a lot of youthful gamers also coming in and executing extraordinarily against the top rated teams, which was something you would hardly ever see right before.”

Sreejesh, who captained India at the 2016 Rio Olympics, explained that just like any other athlete he much too dreamt of getting an Olympic medallist when he begun out.

“I also experienced a pretty unique dream during my job, and that has been to acquire an Olympic medal for my region. The 1st time I stepped out as an Olympian in 2012 at the London Olympics, it was an expertise I can in no way neglect,” he explained.

“The total exhilaration all-around the team, and in the Olympic village is something you don”t expertise, even during a Globe Cup. I was 24 at that time, and we ended up in a pretty tricky pool with eventual gold medallist Germany and silver medallist The Netherlands.

“I bear in mind during the pool stages, we ended up conceding 1st against Netherlands, Germany, and South Korea, but ended up also in a position to equalise shortly in these matches. We experienced a very good team, but I imagine we struggled to finish off these matches and it price us. That event was a possibility for me to understand so substantially.”

Sreejesh explained the 2012 London Games, his 1st Olympics, was a nightmare for Indian hockey as they finished previous in the 12-team competitiveness.

“So when we ended up returning again dwelling as the previous placed team, it genuinely bothered me and I decided that I will do anything to aid my team get greater in all departments so that when we enjoy in the Rio Olympics in 2016, we are competing for the podium,” he explained.

Promoted

“Article 2012, I imagine our team genuinely begun functioning to it as a collective device. We begun adhering to a distinct method to major matches against strong teams, and I imagine our very good performances in the 2014 Asian Games, 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 FIH Globe League Final, genuinely assisted make our self-assurance.”

He also explained that India experienced superior hopes of a podium finish in 2016 Rio Games but a negative outing in the quarterfinals against Belgium dashed their hopes.