The heartbreak and pain of missing out on a podium finish at the Tokyo Olympics will remain for a long time. The tears rolled out and did not stop till hours after the match.
As the Indian women's hockey team gave the bronze medal playoff match against Great Britain its all, the final scoreline of 3-4 showed just how close the Indian team had come to creating history. But that was not to be—as Great Britain prevailed, members of the Indian team sank on the turf, crying their hearts out. Their grief over the loss was so intense, several members were consoled by the rival team members. So distraught was the Rani Rampal-led side, the girls were even sobbing while receiving a phone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"At this moment, they are still emotional. They will take time to see it (the loss) wasn't as bad, it is OK. It is normal to feel disappointed, just leave them . It is good (they are feeling so bad), that says a lot about them (how much they wanted the win)," revealed Sjoerd Marijne, chief coach of the Indian women's hockey team.
Marijne is incredibly proud of the way his team performed at the games. For the team which came 12th in Rio 2016 to finish 4th in Tokyo 2020 is a very creditable performance. He had in fact targetted a quarter-final initially for the team. "I told the girls to give the match their everything till they have no legs to run. They did that today, showed the fighting spirit. But they gave too many Penalty Corners away. They didn't win a medal, but achieved something bigger than a medal."
He added that his wards were very "close" to winning the medal in Tokyo. "If you had said that a number 10 ranked team could win an Olympic medal (before the tournament) others would not have believed it. We were very close to it The girls believed in themselves ."
The women's hockey team, Marijne said, surprised many top teams in the tournament. "Great Britain were very nervous initially playing us. They saw our matches against Australia and Argentina. We were amongst the best four teams in this tournament. Everybody is taking us seriously now after this tournament."
He revealed that after losing the first three matches in the Olympic Games, he was very angry with his team. "I was extremely angry with the team. Because many times at Olympics, you can throw away chances. I told them to show their best which they were not doing at that moment. Last two matches they really transformed and played the game with another mindset. They got serious."
According to Marijne, for the Indian women's team to build on this performance and improve further to become a top ranked team in the world, the main thing needed is more pressure matches. "The last match we played under pressure was the Olympic qualification match which was two years ago. The girls need more matches—Maybe a Hockey India League for Women. Hope things will happen in future," he said.
Elaborating further on this, the Dutchman said, "The setup should be the same as that of the men's. They had the Premier League, they are participating in the FIH Pro League for over 8-9 years. Need to organise same thing for the girls because its working. "He was clear that as far as fitness standards were concerned the girls were at par with other top teams. "They did not lose to Argentina or today because of fitness. Great Britain has won an Olympic final, its about experience, that is what the girls need."
Marijne ended by saying the match against Great Britain was his last as chief coach of the Indian team. His contract was till the end of Tokyo Olympic Games but Sports Authority of India and Hockey India were considering extending it. With the Olympics being postponed by a year, Marijne has had to extend his stay in India. He has a family back home in Netherlands and is keen to go back to them.
