Yes, the Indian women’s hockey team is out of the Paris 2024 Olympics race, after the 0-1 loss to Japan, at the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers, but it’s not the end of the road at all, for the Savita Punia-led team. India will have to overcome the grief ASAP, since there’s already a lot to look forward to.
Of course, the larger goal will be to get in new players, and start the work for Los Angeles 2028 already, but there’s a lot to play for, before that as well. Just a few days from now, the Indian women’s hockey team will be up against the US, the Netherlands, Australia and China in the FIH Pro Hockey League, that starts from February 3 in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela.
After the loss, chief coach Janneke Schopman had said, “it’s going to hurt for a long time because when the Olympics is on the TV, we know we wanted to be there and to be completely honest, I think we have the quality to be there. I know we have the quality and I think we should have been there, but we’re not. So that hurts.”
On the other hand, former coach Sjoerd Marijne had told Insidesport exclusively, that while there are a few problems in the team, there should be no blame game now.
