With an eye on the Olympics, India hockey team skipper Sardar Singh on Thursday said that the upcoming tournaments like the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and the Champions Trophy will serve as key preparatory
With an eye on the Olympics, India hockey team skipper Sardar Singh on Thursday said that the upcoming tournaments like the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and the Champions Trophy will serve as key preparatory events in the run-up to the Rio Olympic Games.
Sardar said while the immediate aim is to win a gold at the Sultan Azlan Shah at Ipoh from April 6 to 16, the larger goal is to come up with a medal-winning show in the Champions Trophy, to be played in London from June 10 to 17.
“We have a very busy schedule over the next few months. So, we need a very strong core group of players around which the team will revolve. Though the immediate focus of our preparation is the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, but we are also looking ahead at the Champions Trophy that will be played in June,” Sardar said at the training-cum-conditioning camp, which is currently under way at the SAI Centre in Bengaluru.
The Indian team have enjoyed considerable success in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, winning the tournament five times — 1985, 1991, 1995, 2009 and 2010. Last year, India finished third and Sardar said his team’s target was to do better this time around.
“We have a good record in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. Our target is to do better than last year when we clinched bronze. We lost some close matches against New Zealand and Malaysia. But this year our aim is to come back with gold,” he said.
This year, besides India, defending champions New Zealand, 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Australia, Pakistan, Japan, Canada and hosts Malaysia will be taking part in the tournament.
The skipper feels that preparations are in the right direction.
“The core group of players are shaping up very well. This team have the right balance of experience and youth and the youngsters are willing to stand up to be counted. We have a great coach in Roelant Oltmans, who is a very astute reader of the game.
“The team are working in the right direction and are making 100 per cent effort to win the tournament,” said the veteran of 236 international games.
Sardar said that the team have been working on a few grey areas like conceding early and late goals, and the inability to create more scoring chances by earning penalty corners.
