Hockey: India need to aim for benchmark set by Belgium and Australia, says coach Graham Reid

A historic Olympic medal, notwithstanding, the Indian men’s hockey team should try to emulate the benchmark set by Belgium and Australia if it wishes to reclaim the gold in three years time at the 2024 Paris Games, said the side’s chief coach Graham Reid.

While Australia has been a hockey powerhouse after the 1980s, reigning Olympic and world champions Belgium took the game by storm in the last 10 years by finishing runners-up in 2016 Rio and then winning the gold in Tokyo Games.

Besides, Belgium also bagged the World Cup title in 2018 before claiming the European championship crown in 2019.

“They (Belgium and Australia) are two world-class teams we saw in the final (in Tokyo). I think they are the benchmark and that’s what we need to be aiming for,” Reid told reporters during an open media session. “If you look at Belgium, it’s a pretty good mirror to what we should be aiming for.”

The Manpreet Singh-led Indian men’s hockey team scripted history in the just-concluded Tokyo Games by winning a medal, a bronze, after a hiatus of 41 years. India’s last of the eight Olympic gold medals came way back in the 1980 Moscow Games.

Reid, a master tactician, said a strong bonding developed between the…

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