Indian women's hockey team is back at training
Indian women's hockey team is back at training
After a year of mixed fortunes (2018), Indian women hockey players are all set to launch their 2019 campaign with the first training camp at the Southern Centre of NIS at Bengaluru. At the end of the first camp, Indian team will go to Europe for training-cum-competition programme.
On Thursday, Hockey India called 33 players to attend the preparatory camp from January 4. Almost all the players who donned national colours last year have been called to attend the first camp of the year. The chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne will take the camp.
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Indian women's hockey team is back at training[/caption]
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Apart from the senior players, who have retained their place in the core group, Hockey India has also named young players like Salima Tete and Lalremsiami who were part of the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires last year where they won a historic Silver medal.
Among Goalkeepers Savita, Rajani Etimarpu and Sonal Minj have received a call-up while defenders Deep Grace Ekka, Sunita Lakra, Sushila Chanu Phukhrambam, Gurjit Kaur, Rashmita Minz, Suman Devi Thoudam, Mahima Choudhary, Nisha and Salima Tete have been included.
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Indian women's hockey team is back at training[/caption]
Midfielders Nikki Pradhan, Monika, Lilima Minz, Namita Toppo, Neha Goyal, Udita, Jyoti, Anuja Singh, Shyama Tidgam, Sonika, Karishma Yadav and Forwards Rani, Lalremsiami, Navneet Kaur, Navjot Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Vandana Katariya, Anupa Barla, Priyanka Wankhede, Reena Khokhar and Leelavathy Mallamada Jaya have been called up for the camp ahead of the team’s tour to Spain starting January 24.
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Speaking about the season’s first camp, Indian Women’s Hockey Team Chief Coach Sjoerd Marijne said, “We will be working on getting to the right fitness level in a short 20-day camp to play matches during the team’s tour to Spain. We also want to try some new things we want to implement in our game.”
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Indian women's hockey team is back at training[/caption]
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The Indian team last year saw improved performances as they jumped up the world rankings to No.9 and also brought home the Silver medal from the Asian Champions Trophy and 18th Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang. The team was also impressive at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where it lost to Australia in the semi final. On asked about the key areas the team will be looking to improve this year as it attempts to win an Olympic Qualification, Marijne said, “Better finishing and creating more scoring opportunities are the two key areas we need to improve. Having someone like Australia’s Glenn Turner was good but we can’t expect that we will now score more goals because of that 10-day camp but every input will only improve the process of scoring more goals and this camp with Glenn was one of them. He shared his experience from his career and those things can help players.”
-PTC NEWS
