It was never an easy route, if they are boarding to
Rio after 36 years it’s through a saga of hard work and determination. Indians
may know Preeti Sabarwal and Vidya Sharma
but they rarely know Rani Rampal and Sushila Chanu , who are the backbone of team India
but not the Bollywood portrayers.
Yes, its
proud in air as Indian women’s hockey team is qualified to Rio Olympics,
the land of sun. The team is all set
to compete with the ‘body play’ of European groups. They are quite confident on
their caliber and ready to prove it in the ground
The glory they bought by stepping to
the door steps to Rio by finishing fifth in the Antwerp leg of the Hockey World
League semi-finals itself have space in history. It was in 1980 Mexico Olympics
when Indian eve’s team competed in and finished fourth out of six teams.
Hockey is the mission –passion and
ambition of all in the team, each cherish the struggles they went through and practising hard to yield the fruit of it. The big dream of the team was to be
qualified for Olympics and now the biggest one is to grab a medal and mark
their share in the history.
When Indian queens compete in Brazil
the captains side ‘defending’ will be lead by Sushila Chanu and Deepika
Thakur – Captain and vice captain respectively- The Rani duo – Rani Rampal and Poonam Rani will
be the backbone of ‘forwards’ and the Hariyana trump card Savita Punia secures the post. Sports lovers expect much
from Vandana Kataria and Rani Rampal as they have kept their style in recent
matches. Vandana had a dream run in Round 2 of the 2014-15 FIH
Hockey World League, where she helped her team to win the tournament. She was
in scorching form, as she finished with 11 goals which made her the top scorer
of the event. Rani , being the top scores in the semi final match that
opened the Olympics entry expectation level is really high for this FICCI
Comeback of the Year award recipient.
But lack of the third Rani, the all
time super player and captain who guided team to the door of Olympics – Ritu Rani
is surely the biggest drawback of the squad. Even if it’s her inconsistent
performance excellence and attitudes paved way out of the team her experience
and fast movements will be very well missed. The current captain expressed her
happiness as well as tension to guide the team for Olympics after 36 years, who
was announced to lead the team just two weeks before.
India is ranked 13 in the world FIH
ranking hence if they can finish off by a single digit position in Rio that
surely make country proud. Being in pool B in the session team should be
competing with Great Britan , Argentina , Australia , USA and Japan and that won’t
be a easy hurdle for the next level.
India doesn’t expect much from the
team as they gave country a treat by the qualification itself, but a medal from
Rio will surely be the icing in the cake. As the average age of the team is
22-24 years the same players can compete in next Olympics by grabbing much
experience from this big platform. Still all eyes will be focused to the ground
when Sushila and team represent the tri-color there.
They might have come from the far
corners of India but they came with the determination. It’s not a cinema but
with more intensity ‘Chak de girls' of India are out there to prove themselves.
Wishing them ‘Chak De’
Goalkeeper: Savita Punia
Defenders: Deep Grace Ekka, Deepika
Thakur , Namita Toppo, Sunita Lakra, Sushila Chanu
Midfielders: Navjot Kaur, Monika
Malik, Renuka Yadav, Lilima Minz
Forwards: Anuradha Devi, Poonam
Rani, Vandana Kataria, Rani Rampal, Nikki Pradhan, Preeti Dubey
On standby: Rajani Etimarpu, H
Lalruat Feli
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