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Rupinder Pal Singh, India’s drag flick specialist, who played a defining role in India’s bronze medal victory at the Hockey World League Final in Raipur, has expressed joy over his first medal, and has hailed it as ‘one of the greatest events of his life.’
“It is one of the greatest events of my life. It is my first medal in a FIH (World level) tournament. It was because of team effort,” he said. A manager at Indian Overseas Bank, in Chennai, Singh said that the third place finish has provided the team with the much needed impetus before the 2016 Rio Olympics.
India defeated Netherlands 3-2 in the penalty shootout, in the third place play-off at the Hockey World Legaue Final, after the teams were tied at 5-5 at the end of the four quarters. Placed with Argentina, Germany and Netherlands in their group, India finished last after losing to Netherlands and Argentina and drawing with Germany.
The drag-flicker said that despite having three bad games in the Group, the team fought back as one unit. He termed the loss to Belgium in the semi-finals as unfortunate, as he believed that the team had more chances than its opponent.
Netherlands came into the ‘D’ only four times, he said, and India had more chances but just couldn’t latch on to them. He mentioned the inability to create more penalty-corner opportunities as one of the reasons why the team didn’t do very well.
India created just 10 penalty corner opportunities over the span of the tournament, something that Rupinder believes to be very less. However, one crucial lesson that the team learnt from the league was that they can play good hockey.
“We were 2-0 down (in the bronze medal play-off match) but fought back. We should maintain the same momentum till the Rio Olympics. I admit we were not consistent. I don’t know the reasons. But if every individual gives his 100 per cent from the first minute, then we can do well in Olympics.”
He also urged the Tamil Nadu players to never give up on the sport even after they get a job. He said that there was no dearth of talent in the state. It was just that once the players got a job, they got bogged down a bit and stopped practicing.
Rupinder, who played in the Indian team that won the Gold at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, would now be playing in the super-six of the Chennai Hockey Association Senior Division League set to commence in the third week of December.
