FIH Women’s Series Finals | India’s only mission this year is to qualify for Tokyo Olympics, says Sjoerd Marijne
Ahead of Indian women’s team’s opening encounter against Uruguay in the FIH Women’s Series Finals in Hiroshima, coach Sjoerd Marijne has mentioned that the team’s only mission is to qualify for 2020 Olympics. Marijne also said that India is a better experienced team now in women’s hockey.
India being the ninth-ranked team in FIH Rankings will start its campaign at the FIH Women’s Series Finals with an aim of making it to the next round of Olympics qualifications. They are placed in Pool A in the competition, starting from today in Hiroshima and will take on Uruguay in their opening encounter.
“Our only mission this year is to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the athletes are prepared for this challenge,” Marijne was quoted as saying by Hockey India.
“We are a better experienced team now and the athletes know the importance of this tournament in which the winning team will be rewarded with 500 ranking points and that gives home advantage for the next round of qualification.”
The Rani Rampal-led side will also play Poland and Fiji in their next two matches in the group stage and would want to make it to the top four and then the finals. The top two teams of the competition will qualify for the FIH Series Finals. Marijne also said that the team had good practice games in Japan before the start of the tournament.
“We had two good practice matches [against a local club and the Japanese team]. Since we arrived one week prior to the start, we have had good training sessions which has provided us an understanding of the pitch. We have played these teams during the World League Round 2 in 2017 and we are aware of their capabilities,” the coach explained.
“The pitch here is fast which suits our style of play. We have utilized the past week in Hiroshima to allow our bodies to get used to the time-difference and the weather. Our previous tours this year to Spain, Malaysia and Republic of Korea taught us to remain focused on our end result and not to take any team light. Every single match is important and that’s how the team needs to approach it.”
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