Tokyo: India Indian Hockey Hockey team coach Graham Reid said on Thursday said he felt “special” to be part of the revival of the game in India after the team won his first Olympic medal in 41 years by beating Germany in Bronze here.
The 57-year-old, which is part of the Australian silver winning team in the 1992 Barcelona match, took over as an Indian coach in 2019 and had been obsessively talked about pursuing the process and investing in young people to get the results at a big stage such as the Olympics.
Read Alsotokyo Olympics 2020: India creates history, wins a Hockey medal after 41 years of ex-gold winner eight times, who fought against a heartbreaking decline in the past four decades, making the resurrection in the past few years recalculated in the best way with an Olympic medal.
“This is a fantastic feeling, he has come after a lot of sacrifices that have been made by the whole group,” Reid said referring to the time the players spent away from their families and in some cases, against Covid-19 as well.
“It takes a long time to get where this athlete gets.
All the sacrifices are not visible,” he added with Captain Manpreet Singh sat by his side after 5-4 wins here.
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I knew it was released from the country, this group had been waiting for a medal for a long time and I knew how many hockies for India and I got the privilege to help play a role in it.” India 1-3 years old in the match and Reid said one of the things that had been done as long as his task had never lost a comeback.
“Before the match I asked people to make sure they bring the next level if something happens, for example, if you go down, you need to bring the next level of play and they do it very well,” Reid explained.
Read Alsotokyo Olympics: Meet the Indian men’s hockey team who broke the 41-year-old Jinx medal last time India has won a Hockey medal at the Olympics running back in 1980, when the country won his last gold.
Now, Jinx 41 years has finally been broken, thanks to the thriller edge of your chair from a bronze medal match, which saw India beat Germany 5-4.
“(This) never ends until it’s finished.
It’s always easy to say you have to do this or that but there are many things that take place,” he added when asked about the angle of the penalty that India conceded only six seconds from the last Hooter.
“Already one of the signatures of this team, which we have tried and make sure that we can always return and I think we did it.” Reid was effusive in his praise for Veteran Guard P R Sreejesh, who stood like a wall before a German attack that was unrelenting.
“Having someone like Sreejesh in the goal was good, glad that we didn’t have to go to the shootout.
He is a Stalwart of Indian Hockey.
He has done a lot of work in the background to get to where he is,” he said.
The experienced coach also praised the efforts made by the Ministry of Sports and Sports of Indian authorities.
“The funding is there, it’s just a matter of keeping these things.
It was once a national game.
Everything involved with Hockey wants to see it again,” he said.
“We work on our mentality, I tell them that we can change the future and we do that today,” he added.