Possibility of playing at home during Olympic qualifiers is very high, believes Sjoerd Marijne
Hockey India
Sjoerd Marijne is of the belief that there is a high chance of the Indian women playing their FIH Olympic Qualifiers and said that it will be an advantage for the team. India finished winners at the FIH Women’s Series Finals and qualified for the final round of Olympic qualifications.
The Indian women’s hockey team had a great outing at the FIH Women’s Series Finals in Hiroshima where they finished winners without losing a single game in the tournament. The team has now got closer to their eventual aim of making it to the Olympics as they will now play in the FIH Olympic Qualifiers later this year.
As per chief coach Sjoerd Marijne, there is a high possibility of India playing at home as India are placed at a better position on the FIH rankings. India are ranked ninth and they will most likely play a lower-ranked side thatwhich will allow them to play at home.
“The possibility is very high that we will be playing home for the qualifiers. That is a good thing. These girls do not play at home often and they do not have the privilege like the men’s team does who do play,” Marine was quoted as saying by Scroll.
“They will think about that moment for the rest of their lives. They will inspire women and girls in Bhubaneswar.”
India were the best team at the FIH Women’s Series Finals in Hiroshima and performed accordingly. They got the better of Chile in the semi-final before winning the final 3-1 against hosts and Asian Games gold-medallist Japan to lift the trophy. Marijne has mentioned that the team keeps on training and improving.
“We keep training and improving. We improve in one day after the semi-final against Chile. Playing at home is I think an advantage,” the women’s hockey coach explained.
“A few games were against low ranked teams and we were not in the rhythm of the tournament. The most important was the semi-final and they had nerves. The first quarter wasn’t great but we can do much better. The nerves disappeared in the final and we played well.”
Gurjit Kaur was one such player who grabbed all attention during the tournament. She ended up being the highest scorer in the entire event by ending up with a total of 11 goals in five games. The drag-flicker had scored a hat-trick in the semi-final against Chile before scoring a brace in the important final encounter against the hosts in Hiroshima.
“How Gurjit is doing [converting PCs], there is no worry. The thing is to maintain the scoring. There should be quality to do it at the right moment.
“The way she did it in the semis and final, not many girls can do that,” Marijne signed off.
