After the Olympic medal and the Asian Champions Trophy medal, there is one more thing for the Indian hockey team to enjoy. The Indian men’s hockey team has jumped to third place in the latest rankings released by the International Hockey Federation.
The Indian hockey team won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics and the bronze medal at the Asian Champions Trophy which ended yesterday with 2296.038 points. Olympic champions Belgium top the men’s rankings. Australia is in second place. The Netherlands and Germany finished fourth and fifth, respectively. After losing to India in the bronze medal match of the Asian Champions Trophy, Pakistan slipped to 18th position in the rankings.
While the Indian men’s team improved in the rankings, the women suffered a setback. The Indian women’s team finished only ninth in the world rankings released at the end of the year. The Indian women finished fourth in the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics after losing in the semifinals. Checking the rankings, the team scored only 1810.32 points.
The Indian women’s hockey team lost to Argentina in the Olympic women’s hockey semifinals. This is the first time the Indian women’s hockey team has made such a breakthrough at the Olympics since finishing fourth in 1980. Meanwhile, the Indian men’s team won the Olympic bronze by defeating strong Germany by five goals to four. India’s strong comeback came after trailing by three goals to one. For the first time since winning gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, India has won an Olympic medal in hockey.
While Simranjeet Singh scored a pair of goals for India, Rupinderpal Singh, Hardik Singh and Harmanpreet Singh also found the target. Timor Ores, Benedict Fark, Niklas Velen and Lucas Windfeder all scored for Germany. The performances of Sreejesh, a goalkeeper and a Malayalee, who stood firm like a rock in front of the goal post, were also crucial. India’s medal tally rose to 12 with the Olympic medal haul this year. India is also the team that has won the most Olympic gold in hockey.
India also won a bronze medal by defeating Pakistan in the Asian Champions Trophy Hockey. India defeated Pakistan by three goals to one. For India, penalty corner expert Harmanpreet Singh scored two goals while Akashdeep scored one goal. Junaid Mansoor scored the consolation goal for Pakistan.