Hockey Junior World Cup Winners Eye Senior World Cup, 2020 Olympics
Kolkata: Indian Junior Hockey World Cup champions’ captain Harjeet Singh reached about twenty minutes late in the felicitation programme arranged by the West Bengal government on Sunday. He said sorry to everyone for his inconvenience. He was felicitated by another association at Entally, which was the reason for his late arrival.
The felicitation programme was organized by State Government of West Bengal at the Netaji Indore Stadium. Sports Minister Arup Biswas and MOS Sports Laxmiratan Ratan Shukla were present in this grand occasion. They felicitated eight members of the Junior World Cup Hockey winning team.
After the progmmme Harjeet Singh told the media that he and his teammates now aim to break into the senior national team and win the gold in the 2018 World Cup slated to take place in Bhubaneswar.
“The aim is to get into the (senior) team by impressing with our performances in the upcoming HIL (Hockey India League, starting January 21, 2017) and then aim for top honours in the World Cup and Tokyo Olympics 2020,”
Several World Cup winning members have come to the city to participate in the ongoing 121st edition of the All India Beighton Cup.
“It was a surreal feeling. The entire stadium was packed and the moment we won, the joy crossed all limits. We felt so proud to be able to give so much joy to an entire nation at our age,” Harjeet said.
India, in the process, also became the second team after Germany to win the title more than once.
The state government awarded each player a prize of Rs 10,000 for the historic feat.