Tokyo Olympics: India won the Olympic bronze medal in Tokyo when they defeated Germany 5-4 in a thrilling match. The India men's hockey team won its first Olympic medal since Moscow 1980.
India players celebrate a goal by Hardik Singh, during the men's field hockey bronze medal match against Germany (Courtesy: AP)
- India beat Germany 5-4 on Thursday to win their first Olympic medal in hockey in 41 years
- India's last medal was a gold at the 1980 Olympics and they last won bronze at the 1972 Games
- India went 3-1 down in the second quarter but fought back and fended Germany off in the end
Simranjeet Singh scored two field goals while Harmanpreet Singh and Hardik Singh scored from penalty corners. India went 3-1 down and then came back to level 3-3, all in the second quarter. Rupinder Pal Singh converted a penalty stroke which gave India the lead and completed their comeback after which Simranjeet scored their fifth.
This is India's fourth bronze medal at the Olympics. They last won a bronze in the 1972 Munich Olympics. India are the most successful team at the Olympics in men's hockey with eight gold medals.
India were looking down and out when they went 3-1 down in the 24th minute as a relentless Germany piled pressure on the eight-time champions. However, India kept their eyes open for counter-attacking opportunities. Harmanpreet was unable to convert a PC that India got two minutes after they went 3-1 down.
They got another two minutes later and this time, Hardik Singh converted to halve Germany's lead. Harmanpreet then converted a PC in the 29th minute and India equalised just four minutes after going 3-1 down. At half-time, the score was, incredibly, 3-3.
India seemed to start at where they left off in the third quarter and forced a penalty stroke. Rupinder made no mistakes with his strike and India took the lead. Five minutes later, Simranjeet scored his second of the match three minutes later to make it 5-3 in India's favour, which remained the score at the end of the third quarter.
Germany were not ready to give up without a fight though. Lukas Windfeder scored from a penalty corner in the 45th minute to take one back for the four-time champions, thus setting up a tense finish to the match. Mandeep got a one-on-one chance with the German goalkeeper in the 51st minute but he ended up taking the ball too far to the left. He had to take the shot from an acute angle in the end that the keeper saved.
Germany took off their goalkeeper with three minutes left on the clock. India managed to save a penalty corner in this period and another in the dying seconds of the match to seal the historic win.
Following a 1-7 hammering against Australia, India came back strong to win 4 out of their 5 group games and finish second in Pool A. Against Great Britain in the quarter-final, India showcased their class and sealed a dominant 3-1 win to end their 49-year-long wait for a semi-final berth. However, Belgium proved too good for the men's side in the semi-final on Tuesday, August 3.
Earlier in February this year, the Indian team played Germany in two back-to-back matches where they were able to put to test all the hard work that went in during the National Camps in SAI, Bengaluru. This was India's first tour since 2020 when the pandemic restricted their travel, and in the first match India beat Germany 6-1 and in the second match, they drew 1-1.
Indian men once ruled the Olympic hockey tournament, winning six successive golds from 1928 to 1956. When they claimed the top prize for an eighth time at the 1980 Moscow Games, no one could have guessed that they would have been left in Olympic wilderness for the next four decades.
However, In the last few years, the Indian team has achieved important milestones, including winning the Asia Cup in 2017, claiming the Asian Champions Trophy in 2018 as well as winning the FIH Series Final in 2019 over the past four years.
India also reached the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup in Bhubaneswar and performed exceedingly well in the FIH Hockey Pro League under Manpreet before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the schedule.
0 Comments