Hockey coach sets new targets for men’s team

New Delhi, August 27

A historic Olympics bronze medal in its pocket, the Indian men’s hockey team is eyeing several milestones in the coming years, chief coach Graham Reid said.

The team won a bronze at the Tokyo Games earlier this month, ending a 41-year wait for a medal in the sport.

“We have set some milestones in terms of competitions that are coming up for us now,” Reid said. “We have Asian Games, FIH Pro League, Commonwealth Games, Hockey World Cup in 2023 and then Paris Olympics the following year. How we need to prepare between those milestones will be decided next month or so.”

The Australian said he will take feedback from the players. “We also have to sit down and analyse all the games from the Olympics and see what the other teams have been doing, because you never get the time to do that in the middle of a tournament, when the focus is limited only on the next opponent. We also need to get feedback from our players on what they feel are the skills that they need to work on going forward, and surely we need to accelerate our learning to be consistently up there with the best teams in the world all the time,” he said. — PTI