Hockey Olympic Qualifiers: Double delight for India as both men and women teams book berths in 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
Hockey Olympic Qualifiers: Double delight for India as both men and women teams book berths in 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games After Indian women's team scrapped past the visiting US on better goal difference, India men overcame a first minute goal deficit to beat Russia 7-1 for its second successive win in Olympic Qualifiers at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar on Saturday. India this becomes fifth nation after Japan, Argentina, South Africa and Spain to send its both men and women teams to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games hockey competition. After Akexey Sobolevskiy put Russia ahead with a stunning field goal in the opening minute, India came back strongly with some individual and combined drills that had hard fighting Russians on their toes for most time of the game. India's big win was spearheaded by drag flicker Rupinderpal Singh, who scored a brace and first goals of the Olympic Qualifiers. The last and seventh goal was scored by another drag flicker Amit Rohidas. Besides Rupinderpal Singh, it was also a big day for Akashdeep Singh who also had a brace to his credit with goals in the 23rd and 29th minutes. Lalit Upadhayay scored the second goal for the home while Nilakanta Sharma had a rasping drive from the top of the circle in the 47th minute to account for India's fourth goal. Today Indian men played aggressively and had the fast moving Russians under check. After having watched their women counterparts conceding four goals in the first half and they themselves conceding a goal in the opening minute to the Russians was perhaps the provocation for the Indian men's team to go all out. Akashdeep, Rupinderpal, Amit Rohidas and Lalit Upadhyay scored their first goals on the event on a day when the strong home crowd wanted nothing less than a big win as a consolation to the women team's game loss. Like 2016, India will be heading to Olympic games with both its teams competing in the hockey event in Tokyo. This will be the third time after 1980 when Indian men and women teams played in Olympic Games together for the first time. -PTC News
