India men’s hockey team to visit Spain. File Pic
Internet Desk: Ahead of the Rio Olympics Indian Men’s hockey team targeting a medal in this Olympic flew to Spain for the final practice. Playing a couple of practice matches at Spain they will leave for Rio de Janeiro.
“We hope to gain some match practice in Madrid. We leave for Rio on July 29 from Madrid. The boys are upbeat, well prepared and eager to start the tournament”, said Indian hockey captain P.R. Sreejesh.
The team left Sunday and reaching Madrid they have already started warming up for the practice matches. Rupinder Pal Singh also tweeted their practice photographs.
Captain of Indian team said, “We are going to Spain mainly for acclimatization. We need a break from here. We will play a couple of practice matches there and know where we stand. The climate of Rio during the Games will be to similar Spain. So, it is a good decision to go to Spain before landing at Rio”. The Indian team underwent a grueling 10-day national camp here, where the focus was on getting the finer details right.
“The team is eager and ready to challenge ourselves. In the lead-up to the Olympics, we have shown some really good performances. It shows the ability of this team against the top sides in the world. Now the idea is to show and prove that it was not a one-off,” chief coach Roelant Oltmans stated ahead of the team’s departure.
As per the new format 12 teams have been divided into two pools of six with each team initially playing round-robin games within their pool. Following the completion of the round-robin games, the top four teams from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals.
“Every match in Rio will be crucial. Every team will play to win, be it Ireland, Canada or Holland. We can’t take anyone lightly”, said Sreejesh.