Hockey coach Reid happy with form before Oly qualifiers

Bhubaneswar, October 17 

The Indian hockey team’s chief coach Graham Reid is impressed with the team’s all-round growth and wants his players to play at the highest level while tackling Russia in the upcoming FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers. The Indian team won the FIH Men’s Series Finals in Bhubaneswar in June and followed that with victory in the Tokyo Olympics test event in August. The team remained unbeaten on its recent Belgium tour, where it won all five matches against the hosts and world No. 8 Spain.

“Our GPS numbers were great, which means that the running, effort, speed and intensity were actually even higher than last year’s World Cup. So they were very good numbers for us to see, and for the players to understand that to play at that level, you need to be achieving those consistently,” said Reid.

“Another part was the consistency of our performances against Belgium and Spain, and it was good to see that we kept building momentum as the tour progressed,” he added. Reid, who took over as the chief coach in April this year, said while taking on Russia in the FIH qualifiers on November 1 and 2, his wards will focus on “doing the right things”. — PTI

India bids to host World Cup in 2023  

Lausanne: India is among the three nations who have presented their bids to host the next edition of the men’s hockey World Cup. India, who have hosted the men’s World Cup thrice, wants to conduct the event in the January 13-29, 2023 window. Belgium and Malaysia are the other two nations who have also sent their bidding dossier to conduct the men’s event but they prefer to host the event in the July 1-17, 2022 window. For the Women’s World Cup, five countries have presented their bids. While Germany, Spain and the Netherlands want to host the event in July 1-17, 2022, Malaysia and New Zealand are keen to conduct the tournament in January 13-29, 2023. The final decision on the hosts will be taken on November 8 this year in Lausanne.