Indian Female Hockey Named A Team Of 18 At Tokyo 2020 Olympics

New Delhi, July 26, 2019: Hockey India named the team of 18 women of Indian women's hockey on Friday for the next Tokyo 2020 Olympics testevent to be held in Tokyo, Japan, from August 17 to 21 of 2019. The Indian team will be captained by Rani and Vice Captains of Savita.

Under the direction of head coach Sjoerd Marijne, the team's composition has remained similar to the one that participated in the FIH Hiroshima 2019 Women's Series Finals, and the Dutch opted for onlytwo changes in the team of 18 members selected for the Test of theTokyo 2020 Olympic Games Event. The young Sharmila Devi and Reena Khokhar have entered the team, with Sunita Lakra and Jyoti giving in.Khokhar had been sidelined due to an injury, but returned to the sideafter recovering successfully, while Sharmila Devi hoped to make hisdebut for the national team.

The Indian team, currently in the 10th place in the FIH ranking, facedifficult challenges, face players like No. 2 in the world of Australia, No. 11 in the world of China and the hosts of Japan, whocurrently occupy the position 14 in the FIH classification.

The team consists of experienced archers Savita and Rajani Etimarpu, whowill seek to protect the goal of India, while defenders Deep GraceEkka, Reena Khokhar, Gurjit Kaur, Salima Tete and Nisha have alsobeen included in the 18-member team. Mid fielders Sushila ChanuPukhrambam, Nikki Pradhan, Monika, Lilima Minz and Neha Goyal willseek to command the midfield. Rani, Navneet Kaur, Vandana Katariya,Lalremsiami, Navjot Kaur and Sharmila Devi are the Forwards who have been selected in the team.

“We look forward to playing against three major countries in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games test event, as I rate them all highly. We haveselected a team of 18 players where only 16 players can playaccording to the Olympic standards. I will be very interested to seehow we are doing with these countries, and what we need to improvefor the FIH Olympic Qualifiers because everything we do will befocused on that. We will learn good lessons on this tour regardlessof what happens,” said head coach Sjoerd Marijne lookingtowards the event.

India secured the women's hockey tournament of the FIH Series Finals by beating host Japan 3-1 in the summit clash here on Sunday. Indian women achieved a hard-fought victory over the Asian champions at theHiroshima hockey stadium.

Captain Rani Rampal gave India the lead in the third minute before Gurjit Kaur struck twice (45 and 60 minutes) at the end of the game to establish victory.

Kanon Mori scored the only goal for Japan in the 11th minute. The Indian women's team has already secured its place in the final round of the2020 Olympic Games qualifiers after entering the final of thistournament.

By:Preeti Narula

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