TOKYO - Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games India v Great-Britain (QF3 Photo: Gurjant Singh scored 2-0. COPYRIGHT WORLDSPORTPICS YAN HUCKENDUBLER
Tokyo [Japan], August 2 (ANI): Annu Rani will kick start day eleven of the Tokyo Olympics for India but all eyes will be on the men’s hockey team who will play the historic semifinal encounter against World Champions Belgium on Tuesday.
The Asian side has not claimed a medal in the Summer Olympics since 1980 and the Manpreet Singh-led squad is looking to end the 41-year-old medal drought.
Carrying the hopes of an entire nation, the Indian men’s hockey team lived up to the billing with a scintillating 3-1 win against Great Britain in the quarter-finals on Sunday.
Wrestler Sonam Malik will also be in action as she will compete in freestyle 62kg event. If she qualifies, Sonam is slated to play her semifinal match on the same day.
In the afternoon, Tajinderpal Singh Toor will compete in the men’s shot put qualification round tomorrow. Annu Rani will take part in women’s javelin throw qualification.
Indian men’s hockey team chief coach Graham Reid has sent out a strong message to his players about keeping their emotions in check ahead of their historic semifinal.
While the Australian expressed that he was happy with the 3-1 victory against Great Britain in the quarterfinal on Sunday and lauded their fighting spirit, he highlighted that the two green cards and one yellow card in the game is something they ought to avoid against a world-class team like Belgium.
“I am very proud of the players. We fought hard and sometimes that is what you have to do in final situations of a crunch game like the quarterfinal. You have to fight, bite and scratch. We were very lucky yesterday because they (Great Britain) created more opportunities than us but our PC defence and Sreejesh especially were magnificent last night. They saved us,” he said.
“But looking forward, the things we can learn from last night is that there is a difference between passion and emotion. Sometimes, we let our emotions take over. We need to keep 11 players on the pitch. The problem is that we played a lot of our game against Great Britain with 10 men on the pitch. We can’t do that against Belgium and think that we can be victorious. That will be the big message to the team today when we have a meeting,” asserted Reid. (ANI)
