India males’s hockey staff captain Harmanpreet Singh has two Olympic bronze medals in his cupboard however rues about lacking out on World Cup glory, an anomaly that he needs to set proper within the subsequent version of the mega occasion in 2026.
India has received three World Cup medals thus far – a bronze in 1971 (Barcelona), a silver in 1973 (Amstelveen, Netherlands) and a gold in 1975 (Kuala Lumpur) below Ajitpal Singh’s management.
Harmanpreet, who received back-to-back Olympic bronze in Tokyo and Paris, the second below his management, nevertheless, had received the Junior World Cup in Lucknow in 2016.
“The objective will at all times be to bag Olympic gold and a World Cup medal. The best way we carried out in Paris reveals that we will compete with high groups and win,” Harmanpreet informed PTI.
“Our instant goal is the subsequent FIH Professional League matches after which win the Asia Cup and qualify straight for the World Cup. A World Cup medal hasn’t come for a very long time and I wish to fulfil that in my profession,” stated Harmanpreet, one the most effective defenders and drag-flickers of the world proper now.
“…Hope we will relive these golden days throughout our profession. We is not going to give up until we obtain that,” he added.
The 2026 males’s FIH Hockey World Cup would be the sixteenth version of the quadrennial match scheduled to be held from August 15 to 30 in Wavre, Belgium and Amstelveen, Netherlands. From a private standpoint, Harmanpreet needs to raised his drag-flick abilities and stay match to delay his profession.
“Drag-flick is getting powerful day-by-day and the objective is to work on methods to enhance myself, deliver in additional variations and stay match.” Harmanpreet credit present Indian girls’s hockey staff coach Harendra Singh for shaping his profession and believes the ladies’s aspect drag-flicker and star ahead Deepika is in good palms.
“Deepika is doing nice. She produced a fantastic efficiency within the Asian Champions Trophy in Rajgir, Bihar. She is an effective drag-flicker and a ahead who can rating. She is in protected palms below Harry (Harendra) sir,” he stated.
“I’ll always remember these days and the assistance Harry sir offered me.” By his personal admission, hockey was a coincidence in his life as Harmanpreet by no means aspired to play the game.
“Hockey has chosen me as in my household there was no participant, nor I had an curiosity in hockey. I had an curiosity in lots of sports activities like volleyball, soccer, athletics, basketball,” he stated.
“A coach in my faculty stated strive hockey and from the day I began hockey, I turned a fan of it. I began the game at 7-8 years.” Harmanpreet was the toast of the revamped Hockey India League public sale just lately, bagging ₹78 lakh bid from Soorma Hockey Membership of Punjab.
The HIL can be revived this season after seven years. The franchise-based league can be held in each males’s and girls’s categoory this time.
The boys’s league will start on December 28 in Rourkela, with matches persevering with by way of two phases till the ultimate showdown on February 1, 2025.
The maiden girls’s league will begin from January 2, 2025, in Ranchi, with their grand finale slated for January 26.
Harmanpreet believes the HIL can be a very good studying expertise for kids and can be a feeder line to the nationwide staff.
“The most important factor is that HIL is beginning once more. Joyful that the best bid was for me. This stuff offer you motivation. Financially additionally it is advisable be robust. This stuff assist in private life,” he stated.
“The HIL is an effective alternative for kids to study. In my profession, HIL helped me loads and positively, it’s a probability to play in opposition to high gamers of the world.
“They (children) will get to know what’s their considering, their understanding. HIL goes to learn Indian hockey in future.”
“We are able to get quite a lot of gamers from right here who can symbolize India in future. That is the most effective alternative earlier than them,” he famous.
However Harmanpreet stated the hefty price ticket is not going to add any strain on him in the course of the HIL. “There is no such thing as a strain as a result of until the final day of my profession, each match can be powerful, I’ll take it as a accountability. “The situation would be the similar in HIL as nicely, I’ll attempt to reside as much as the accountability given to me,” he stated.
Revealed – December 01, 2024 05:29 am IST
