‘Confident of winning a medal at the Junior Hockey World Cup,’ says India captain Lalremsiami
The Indian women’s team will compete at the FIH Hockey Women's Junior World Cup South Africa 2021, beginning December 5
Indian women’s hockey has never had it this good. The national team broke new ground as they reached the semi-final of an Olympics for the very first time at Tokyo 2020 and just missed the podium. The spotlight will now be trained on the Under-21 team and they gear up for the FIH Hockey Junior World Cup in South Africa, which will begin from December 5.
And India captain Lalremsiami, who was part of the Tokyo 2020 team, is confident that they will deliver on the increased expectations as an Indian women’s hockey team takes the field for the first time since the Olympics.
“We played very well at the Olympics, created history,” Lalremsiami said during a media interaction arranged by Hockey India.
“The junior team is also very good, very skillful. We have played with the seniors and learnt a lot from them. We are confident of winning a medal at the Junior World Cup.”
India’s best performance at the tournament, so far, has been the bronze medal they won in 2013. That team included the likes of Rani Rampal, Deep Grace Ekka and Vandana Katariya, who were all a crucial part of the team that did well at Tokyo 2020. With the senior and the U-21 teams training together at the Sports Authority of India campus in Bengaluru, the juniors have been able to see up and close the discipline, dedication and attitude it takes to come good at the highest level.
“The seniors have helped us during training as well. They believe in us as well,” added Lalremsiami.
Janneke Schopman, who took over as the head coach of Indian women’s hockey team from Sjoerd Marijne, after the Olympics has been looking after both the teams. According to the Schopman, who was part of Netherlands’ gold-winning team at Beijing 2008, India’s physical fitness and speed may set them apart at the Junior World Cup.
“What I'm very excited about with the team we are bringing, is we have a lot of speed,” said Schopman.
“That's not something junior teams see very often. And also because playing the senior team, we are doing very good job in transition -- from defence to attack and attack to defence. The girls are now used to playing pretty quick.
“More than anything it will be a mind game, where we have to push ourselves every second of every game to make sure that we are making the most of it. The physical fitness is where it needs to be. We have incredible speed in our team. We should use it to chase these other teams and make them so tired that they start making mistakes.”
Schopman, who was the coach of Team USA during the last Junior World Cup, believes the tournament will also be a great opportunity for the youngsters to show their mettle and carve a way into the senior national team.
“For the juniors, it is a great opportunity to show me, more importantly show each other, what they can do at this high level,” said the Dutchwoman.
“Watching them play against teams like Argentina, Japan and Russia will give me an idea of where they are in their development and how quickly they can join the senior team. There is a lot of potential in that group.”
India has been drawn in Pool C along with Russia and Japan and defending champions Argentina. They will begin their World Cup campaign on December 6 against Russia.