Bengaluru, Mar 19: The COVID-19 pandemic notwithstanding, the Indian women’s hockey team is going ahead with its plans to resume “intense training” from next week, with striker Navneet Kaur eying an outing at an Olympics which look doubtful at the moment.
The team is grouped in Pool A for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games where they will play against top ranked teams such as the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland apart from South Africa.
“We will play our first match against the Netherlands at the Olympics and quite frankly, we are really excited to play against them because we have not faced them in the past,” an optimistic Kaur said.
“We don’t fear playing against these teams and are focused on preparing well. We are currently undergoing a week-long recovery which involves light gym session, stretching and swimming pool recovery.
“Resting well is also emphasised before we resume intense training from next week,” she added.
The novel coronavirus outbreak has claimed more than 8000 lives and infected over 2 lakh people across the world.
She attributed the Indian team’s upswing in recent times to a “change in attitude”.
“Apart from winning important matches, I think there are a lot of other factors that have contributed to this change and one of them being chief coach Sjoerd’s style of play. (PTI)
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