Singh and Lakra were both members of the national hockey team led by Manpreet Singh that clinched at the Olympics after 41 years. Rupinder said it was time to pave the way for youngsters to play their chance at the international stage. While Lakra was the vice-captain in Tokyo.

India claiming victory over the Bronze at the 2020 Olympics (Tokyo) was an astonishing moment for the country, the occasion for which the country was waiting since 1980.

Singh (30) has played over 200 matches for India and is considered one of the best drag flickers in the world.

‘The past couple of months have undoubtedly been the best days of my life. Standing on the podium in Tokyo along with my teammates with whom I have shared some of the most incredible experiences of my life was a feeling I will cherish forever,” Singh wrote in the social media post.

“I believe it is time for me to make way for young and talented players to experience every great joy I have felt in these last 13 years of representing India,” he added.

It was 2010 at the Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament held in Ipoh, where he played his maiden international match with India clinching gold. His name was on feature continuously for many historic victories of India including the Asian Games (2014) triumph and the Asian Champions Trophy, 2016, where India won Gold. Though his name was dropped from the team briefly in 2018, he made his way back to the team and became a part of the team that triumphed in Tokyo.

Meantime, Mr Lakra has crawled his way up through the ranks of the junior team set-up to debut for the senior national team in the 2010 South Asian Games and was a part of team India’s witnessing glory in 2014 Asian Games, bronze Medal feat in the World League Final 2015 in Raipur, silver medal-winning campaign at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and FIH Men’s Series Finals Bhubaneswar Odisha 2019 among others.

In his well-established career, the two-time Olympian caught the eye in almost all the major tournaments, including the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup in 2014 and 2018. He, however, failed to take part in the Rio Olympics 2016 due to a knee injury and made a robust fightback to the Indian setup by playing an instrumental role in the team’s gold medal-winning accomplishment at the 2016 Asian Champions Trophy.

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Vivek was part of the national team that claimed Bronze at the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics. To him, this is a dreamlike moment as he has already been honoured with the award in the 2019-2020 season.

“I never imagined this would happen again. It is a surreal feeling to have been nominated for the second time in the same category (FIH Rising Star of the Year Award),” expressed Vivek graciously.

“I got to know this late in the night when I saw texts from my friends congratulating me. To be honest, it’s really overwhelming,” he continued, as quoted by The Hindu. 

The Indian Hockey body prepared the shortlist of all the divisions of FIH Awards 2020-21.

“It’s the result of teamwork and the support of senior players,” said the 21-year old while expressing gratitude to his seniors. 

“Since my debut, the seniors have been the biggest source of motivation. They have helped me play my natural game without any fear or pressure. That is the biggest reason why I could win the 2019 FIH Rising Star of the Year Award and also stand a chance to receive the honour for the second time,” he added further. 

He also pops off his feelings of winning the Bronze against Germany at the quadrennial games. “I still can’t believe I was part of the Olympic medal-winning team,” he voiced.

“It’s a dream of every athlete and I am really blessed to be able to live this dream at the age of 21.”

Asserting about the efforts put down by the team to execute an exemplary play in the next game, Vivek said, “…this is just the beginning and there’s still a lot of room for improvement. We have raised the bar and we have to do even better. There will be more challenges ahead and we need to be fully prepared for whatever comes our way.”

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The recent performance of the national teams in the Tokyo Olympics was remarkable and every countryman was praising the Manpreet and Rani led teams for their outstanding conduct at the Oi Hockey Stadium, Tokyo. Thanks to the Patnaik government for seeing the potential and came to savour the sport which has a glorious history. 

India has won eight golds in Hockey since their maiden play in 1928, Netherlands Olympics. The last Gold match was in Moscow, 1980, Summer Olympics. Since then India was waiting for a medal at the most celebrated sport. This year, the men’s team claimed the Bronze at the Olympics by defeating Germany 5-4, while the women played their maiden semi-finals and stood at fourth. A marvellous play by both the teams on the world stage. 

Just when Mr Patnaik was lauding the men’s and women’s teams after the grand show at the Olympics, he announced, “We, in Odisha, are elated that our partnership with Hockey India has led to this great achievement for the country. I believe Odisha and hockey are destined to become synonymous. We will continue our partnership with Hockey India. Odisha will support the Indian hockey teams for 10 more years.”

Although the exact amount of sponsorship is yet to be disclosed. In 2018, the littoral state had signed a ₹100 crore deal with Hockey India for financing the men’s and women’s teams for 5 years after Sahara India withdrew, subsequently getting entangled in legal issues.

Mr Patnaik, who has honoured each player with ₹10 Lakh and ₹5 lakh each to the support staff, articulated that each team player has made the country proud with their blazing battle at Tokyo Olympics. 

“These are deeply emotional moments for India to witness the revival of Indian hockey. For nearly four decades, hockey fans have been yearning to see India grab a medal at the Olympics. The way the entire country was glued to the screens to watch the hockey teams’ matches, it is quite evident there is something more to hockey than just sports. In these crisis times, the teams have brought smiles to the faces of crores of Indians. We all should be thankful to our boys and girls,” he said, as quoted by the Hindustan Times. To that, showing their gratitude to him each team gifted him a framed jersey autographed by the players.

Patnaik also honoured the ‘player with the maximum number of goals scored’ award to Harmanpreet Singh while PR Sreejesh won the award for the player with the maximum number of goals saved. Nilakanta Sharma won the award for the maximum number of goal assists, Rupinder Pal Singh won the award for the player with the maximum number of defensive tackles and Harmanpreet Singh and Amit Rohidas were complimented with awards for maximum interceptions in the midfield.

In the women’s team, Gurjit Kaur and Vandana Katariya won the award for the maximum number of goals scored. Savita Punia won the award for the maximum number of goals saved. Rani Rampal and Navneet Kaur jointly won the award for the maximum number of goal assists. Deep Grace Ekka won for the maximum number of defensive tackles and P Sushila Chanu was awarded for maximum interceptions in the midfield.

“The team and I are very happy to be present here today as we wish to express our heartfelt thanks to the Odisha government for supporting our team. Our team is always made to feel so welcome when we come here… Odisha feels very much like the home of Indian hockey now,” said Rani, captain of the national women’s hockey team.

On the other hand, the captain of the men’s team, Manpreet Singh, who was delighted to be back in Odisha, said, “This bronze medal may have been won by us as players, but in reality, it equally belongs to India.” He also praised the Odisha CM for providing support to the hockey teams.

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Hailing from Sonipat, Haryana, Nisha was born to a tailor father who works in a retail store. He was instrumental in her career in representing team India on the international stage. “He battled every day to make sure the family is having three meals. Such conditions didn’t discourage him and he always motivated me to play Hockey,” stated Nisha.

“Now, through hockey, I am confident I will be able to support my family financially and bring them out of poverty,” affirmed Nisha.

After a delay of one year due to the Covid pandemic, the Olympics is scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Japan, from July 23. A high spirited Nisha is very grateful for the opportunity she had been provided with the Hiroshima event. “Since my debut in Hiroshima, I have been getting the right exposure and opportunity to prove myself and I feel very fortunate that I was picked in the squad for the Tokyo Olympics. Very few people get to live this dream so early in their international career,” said she, as quoted by The Bridge.

The Tokyo Olympics are about to kick off. Team India will face the Netherlands, World No. 1, in their first group match. Nisha, a firm believer, has deep faith in team India. She said the national team is focusing on speed work to ensure gaining peak at the right time. 

“With only weeks left before we leave for Tokyo, we are putting in all the hard work required and all of us in the team are pushing each other to perform better in every session. I am glad to be part of such a system where the entire Coaching staff is also pumped up to see that we peak at the right time. There is a lot of excitement within the team and all of us are looking forward to our first match against the World Champions Netherlands,” she added.

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Manpreet Singh will lead the team as a captain and Birendra Lakra as a vice-captain. As it is the very first FIH tournament for Coach Graham Reid as chief, so he seems quite excited and looking forward to this series as a quite important step in the Olympic qualification process.

He added that our goal is to give the consistent performance in every match of the series that we play along with respecting all the opposing teams, turning out to be the best team. Also, the previous international matches with the great teams have given us many things to learn, and we’ll surely implement those in these matches.

Following are the details of the team:

Goalkeepers – PR Sreejesh and Krishan B Pathak

Defenders – Harmanpreet Singh, Birendra Lakra (Vice Captain), Surender Kumar, Varun Kumar, Amit Rohidas, Gurinder Singh

Midfielders – Manpreet Singh (Captain), Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma

Forwards – Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Gursahibjit Singh, Simranjit Singh

All the very best team, India. We are looking forward to a fantabulous performance in the series.

Keep watching this space for the updates of the match.

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