News for 05 July 2021
All the news for Monday 5 July 2021
2021 Test Matches ESP v ARG (M) - 5 July
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4 Jul 2021 ESP v ARG 0 - 0
5 Jul 2021 11:00 ESP v ARG
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FIH Match Centre
Reserves named for Kookaburras and Hockeyroos Olympic teams
Kookaburras Head Coach Colin Batch and Hockeyroos Head Coach Katrina Powell have announced the athletes who will head to Tokyo as reserves for the upcoming Olympic Games.
Defender Josh Beltz and forward Tom Wickham have been named the Kookaburras’ two reserve outfield players, while Tyler Lovell will join the team in Tokyo as the backup goalkeeper to Andrew Charter.
For the Hockeyroos, defender Madison Fitzpatrick (sister of fellow Hockeyroo Savannah) and midfielder Greta Hayes have been selected as the reserve outfield players for the Hockeyroos, with Jocelyn Bartram named the reserve goalkeeper.
For previous Olympics, reserves could replace a player in the team of 16 if they are injured or suffer an illness.
However, for Tokyo 2020 teams will be “entitled to reconstitute their teams ahead of every match, according to a timing and process to be determined on a sport-specific basis”.
This means that while the number of players for matches will remain at 16, teams will have the ability to pick from their reserves prior to each match with the exception of the reserve goalkeeper.
This approach has been introduced by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sport Department for these Games to deal with any potential COVID-19 impacts and the particular operational and other demands on teams.
The Kookaburras open the Tokyo Olympic hockey competition in a blockbuster against hosts Japan on Saturday 24 July (10.30am AEST).
The Hockeyroos’ first match is against Spain on Sunday 25 July at 11am AEST.
Hockey Australia media release
'Hockey coach Reid always adopts team-first approach'
Bengaluru: Former Indian men's hockey team forward and the current assistant coach, Shivendra Singh, said on Monday that the focus of the Olympics-bound squad during the national camp here has been on "speed, sharpness, skill and agility" to make an impact inside the 'D'.
Ever since the lockdown early last year, the men's team has been at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru, with chief coach Graham Reid preparing it for the Olympics.
"Our focus is on the overall speed, sharpness, skill and agility of the team to ensure that they arrive in peak conditioning in Tokyo. We are working on focused training drills for the players depending on the positions they play. The strikers are working exclusively on what they have to do inside the 'D'," said Shivendra, a centre-forward during his playing days.
"Graham has a very calm personality and he always adopts a team-first approach in his coaching. He involves the whole coaching staff and has the quality of maintaining togetherness in the group. He makes sure no member feels left out as he never hesitates to ask his staff for inputs that will help the team get better," said the 38-year-old former Indian forward.
Shivendra elaborated that his responsibilities have grown since his initial days as a coach and that he is now more involved in analysing and assessing the team's data from training and matches.
"I felt awkward initially as a coach as I had been a player in the team for so long, but it only took me a week to settle in to my new role. The rest of the coaching staff and players made me feel welcome. I enjoy my work so much now that I feel like spending most of my time on the training ground itself," he said.
Shivendra is confident that the team has the quality to win an Olympic medal this time around.
"I believe in the abilities of these players and I am confident that they are one of the fittest teams in the world; if not the fittest. We are one of the contenders for an Olympic medal for sure," he said.
Deja World
1968 Mexico Olympics hockey: ‘Man-made mistakes cost us’
Muneer Sait, goalkeeper of the Indian hockey team that won bronze at the Mexico Games in 1968, gets emotional every time he holds the medal. It reminds him of the gold they could have won.
Wriddhaayan Bhattacharyya
Gurbux Singh (right) and Balbir Singh II celebrate India’s second goal against Germany in the bronze-medal match in Mexico City on October 26, 1968. - The Hindu Photo Library
It is a usual weekday in Chennai, hot and humid with people speeding past to reach their offices while we enter the broad lane off Thousand Lights towards the residence of Muneer Sait. It took us a while to locate the house as the locals were not aware of an Olympian living next door. Sait is 81 but can be easily mistaken for somebody in his late 60s. He is fit, plays squash regularly and is aware of the goings-on in the world of sport.
The goalkeeper of the Indian hockey team that won bronze at the Mexico Games in 1968 gets emotional every time he holds the medal. It reminds him of the gold they could have won. What went wrong? “Man-made mistakes cost us,” he tells Sportstar.
“It was exciting to get the medal, but it was disappointing that we had to settle for bronze. Unfortunately, we had two captains [Gurbax Singh and Prithipal Singh] for the first time in history. The team split into two. We managed to get bronze as we lost to Australia in the semifinals. Otherwise, we could have beaten Australia and played Pakistan, a game which could have gone either way,” Sait says.
Back in the day, the bronze medal received little appreciation as people were used to India’s gold medals at the Games. “We landed in New Delhi, where only a few officials received us. Nobody bothered in Madras. There was hardly anything. People were disappointed, too. But nobody realised the problems we faced. There was no media coverage of the arrival,” he adds.
Muneer Sait with his medal. - K. Pichumani
Now, after more than 50 years, the medal has gained significance. There is a demand to see the bronze medal as India’s last hockey medal came in 1980. “A year ago, I was called by a sports club as chief guest for an event. They asked me to get the medal. They were thrilled to see it. Those days, people only wanted to see the gold medal (laughs). Even earlier, when I have gone to schools and colleges, I have been asked to carry it,” says Sait.
The medal is stationed in Sait’s almirah in the living room amid his other trophies. “Whenever someone comes and wants to see it, they can.”
Sait recalls the challenges of playing on natural turf. He believes the Indians managed to hoodwink physically superior opponents as they were ahead in terms of skills. “Playing the Germans, Australians, the Dutch and the English team was a different ball game. They were physically trained, and we didn’t have any physios or masseurs. We only had one coach, Balkishan Singh, who would take us to the ground and say, ‘Boys, exercise.’”
India’s best performance in the tournament was against Mexico when it thrashed the debutants 8-0. Sait is remembered for saving 12 penalty corners against Spain, a close game that India won 1-0.
Sportstar
The Resignation The Sport Had To Have
In November of 1990 with Australia in a recession the former Prime Minister of Australia, who was at that time the Treasurer, Paul Keating, uttered the famous line “this is a recession that Australia had to have.”
On Monday of last week Hockey Australia announced that its CEO Matt Favier had resigned and that the Board had accepted his resignation. To many in Hockey circles this was a resignation that Hockey Australia had to have.