Do you know
or remember the names of - Dilpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Shamsher Singh, Manpreet
Singh, Hardik Singh, Simranjeet Singh .. .. .. ..unlikely !
For the fans
of Hockey – the game is back at Chennai at the newly furbished Mayor
Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium - the Asian
Champions Trophy, which began on
Thursday, August 3 and will run till the 13th.
The 2023 Men's Asian
Champions Trophy (officially known as The Hero Asian Champions Trophy Chennai
2023 for sponsorship reasons) is the
seventh edition of the Men's Asian Champions Trophy, a men's field hockey
tournament for the six best Asian national teams organized by the Asian Hockey
Federation. Chennai had earlier hosted 2007 Men's Hockey Asia Cup.
Over the years, international hockey in India became exclusive to the state of
Odisha with the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar and the Birsa Munda Stadium in
Rourkela hosting high profile matches, including two World Cups. The decision
to give the tournament to Chennai, which last hosted an international
tournament more than 15 years back, is indeed a welcome move in keeping up with
the ideals of taking the sport to various parts of the country.
The
Asian Champions Trophy comes right before the same teams head to China for the
Asian Games, starting on September 23. Basically, all the teams will use the
tournament as preparations for their Asian Games campaign, which is also a
pathway to qualify for the Olympic Games. The gold
medal winners in hockey at Asian Games automatically make it to the Paris Olympics
2024.
All the top hockey
nations in Asia will be in action in Chennai, including Pakistan. In total, six
national teams have been clubbed into one pool and they will play each other in
a single round-robin format. The top four teams will progress to the semifinals
while the remaining two teams will play a playoff match for the fifth/sixth
spot.
On day 1 - India swept aside China in their opening game
of the Asian Champions Trophy men's hockey tournament in Chennai. India's goals came from penalty corner dragflicks from Harmanpreet
Singh (x2) and Varun Kumar (x2), a rebound from a saved PC by Sukhjeet Singh, a
superb finish by Mandeep Singh off a PC-assist variation and pacy counterattack
started and finished by Akashdeep Singh. In the fourth minute, local boy Selvam
Karthi won a penalty corner (because his defender was not far enough away as he
trapped a long ball), and captain Harmanpreet blootered one low and hard past
the goalkeeper.
Less than three
minutes later, veteran Manpreet Singh drove into the circle and got
stick-checked. Again, Harmanpreet stepped up and smashed a dragflick to the
left of the keeper. It was all India by this point and that's how it continued
all quarter - in the last minute of the
quarter, India won another PC after a stick check on Karthi in the circle.
Varun Kumar's initial flick was saved but as the rebound was hit back, Sukhjeet
cleverly deflected it into the net through his legs, with his back to goal. 3-0
after Q1 and the crowd knew the game was done.
In the end it was 7-2 drubbing.
The mascot
for the tournament is ‘Bomman’ – the name taking inspiration from the Oscar-winning documentary
“The Elephant Whisperers,” in which Bomman cares for orphaned baby elephant
Raghu along with Bellie – both belonging to indigenous tribes in Mudumalai
Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu.
The
men's field hockey tournament at the 2020 Summer Olympics was the 24th edition
of the field hockey event for men at the Summer Olympic Games. Argentina won
the previous Olympics but were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Belgium
captured their first gold medal after defeating Australia in the final after
penalties. India won their first hockey medal (this time a bronze) since 1980 in
Olympics – the team consisted of
India
men's national field hockey team comprised of :
Dilpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Shamsher Singh, Manpreet Singh (C), Hardik
Singh, Gurjant Singh, Simranjeet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Lalit
Upadhyay, P. R. Sreejesh, Sumit, Nilakanta Sharma, Surender Kumar, Varun Kumar,
Birendra Lakra, Amit Rohidas & Vivek Prasad
4th Aug 2023.
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