Indian women made themselves and India proud with a valiant performance at the Tokyo Olympics. Rani Rampal’s team lost the bronze medal 3-4 ice hockey game to the Rio Olympic gold medalist at Tokyo’s Oi Hockey Stadium on Friday, but the fight that highlighted their stunning campaign was seen again.
Even before the buzzer sounded in the bronze medal match, India made history at the Tokyo Olympics when Rani Rampal’s team became the country’s first women’s ice hockey team to reach the semi-finals. They did a bold effort to get close to the Rio Olympic champions, but they couldn’t cross the finish line.
Olympia in Tokyo: Women from Valiant India lose bronze medal in ice hockey – highlights
India women dropped to their knees with heartache when the buzzer sounded as they put relentless pressure on Britain last quarter. India fell 2-0 after conceding early in the second quarter, but Sjoerd Marijne’s women showed their class and scored up to 3 goals in 6 minutes to go 3-2 into halftime. But after conceding an early goal in the fourth quarter, India failed to equalize to force a penalty shoot-out.
Goalkeeper Savita Punia, known as Save-ita, was heartbroken as she poured out her emotions after India narrowly missed the bronze medal.
A brace from India’s drag flicker Gurjit Kaur and a goal from Vandana Katariya were not enough when India lost the bronze medal game to Great Britain. Savita Punia was brilliant again but it was a heartache for the girls from India.
The men’s team made history on Thursday when they won an Olympic medal after 41 years and defeated Germany 5-4 and won the bronze medal in a play-off game for bronze.
And after already getting their best Olympic performance ever, Indian women tried to double the nation’s joy.
In the group stage, India was defeated 4-1 by Great Britain, the defending champions.
The Indian women’s ice hockey team missed multiple chances in this game and could have made a tighter game of it if they had shown better finishing skills.
The difference between the two teams was that India had the better chances, but Britain took the more chances.
India secured up to eight penalty corners in the game but only converted one. Great Britain didn’t have a great success rate in set pieces either, as it only hit the net once out of six earned.
The Indians would take a lot of confidence from their spirited performance against world number 2 Argentina in the semi-finals despite losing the 2-1 game.
A brave fight against Argentina too
The Indians fought valiantly, leaving Argentina to fight for their money, but took penalty corners at key moments in the game that ultimately proved costly.
With nothing to lose from now on, world number 7 India would appreciate her chances against world number 4 Great Britain.
There is no pressure on them because the 18 fearless and determined women had already done the unthinkable when they stunned three-time champions Australia 1-0 and made it to the Olympic semifinals for the first time.
India’s best performance at the Olympics came in 1980 at the Moscow Games, where it finished fourth out of six teams.
In this edition of the Games, women’s hockey made its Olympic debut and the sport was played in a round robin format, with the top two teams qualifying for the finals.
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