Bronze medal is like tonic for Indian hockey: SV Sunil

Ace striker S.V. Sunil feels their win against defending champion the Netherlands will work like a ‘tonic’ for the Indian hockey but said the team will have to work really hard on some areas to clinch a medal at the Rio Olympics next year.

“This win will boost our morale before the Rio Olympics. It is like a tonic for us as beating the Netherlands in a major event is a big achievement. It has given us the confidence that we can beat any team on our day but the Olympics is far away now and we should not overthink about it,” Sunil said.

India broke their 33-year-old medal jinx in a major international tournament as they came back from two goals down to stun defending champions Holland in the shoot-out in a thrilling bronze medal play-off match of the Hockey World League Final in Raipur on Sunday.

India last won a medal in an international tournament way back in 1982 when they beat Pakistan 5-4 in the Champions Trophy in Amsterdam.

“Coach Roelant Oltmans has taught us to give our 100 per cent on field without thinking about results. He always says that if you keep on thinking about medal, results won’t come. Our strategy was taking one match at a time and it worked,” said the ace forward.

Sunil admitted that inconsistency was a major problem for the hosts in the pool phase but they overcame that in the quarter-final against the Great Britain.

“Our performance in the pool phase was not consistent but we knew that QF will be very crucial and we have to win that anyhow.”

Pathetic India got lucky: Ajitpal Singh Meanwhile, World Cup-winning former captain Ajitpal Singh feels India were “pathetic” in the group stage of before they got “lucky” to notch up a bronze.

“The tournament format was such that all eight teams made the quarter-finals. If you analyse India’s performance in the league stage, they were pathetic barring the drawn game against Germany. Then anything was possible from the knockout stage and India did well to beat England in the quarters and then the Netherlands for the bronze,” Ajitpal said.

“A medal is a positive sign but our team have to be a lot more consistent than what they have been, if they are to do well in the Olympics next year.”