India women's hockey goalkeeper Savita on Tuesday revealed that head coach Sjoerd Marijne got angry with the side after their performance against Great Britain in the group-stage encounter of the recently-concluded Tokyo Olympics.
"Our first game, we played well but we ended up on the losing side. In our third game against England, we did not perform that well and coach Sjoerd Marijne got angry with us after that. He told us to show some fight and he did not even have lunch with us. He kept on pushing us and he really motivated us. The coach told me that he was aware of how angry he got but it was just to motivate the players. The match against Ireland was important, we gave our best in every game," Savita told ANI.
Talking about the team's campaign at the Games, the goalkeeper said: "Our team played really well at the Tokyo Olympics, I got a bit emotional after we missed out on the bronze medal, we missed out on a medal by the whisker. I was not able to control my emotions as we missed out on a medal by the slightest of margins."
Coach Marijne had his last assignment at the Tokyo Olympics and now he would be stepping down as the coach. "Coach Marijne trusted his each player, he helped everyone to gain optimum levels of fitness, he always had high hopes from us and it motivated me. He always kept on believing," said Savita.
After the semi-final loss against Argentina, Vandana Katariya's family had to endure casteist slurs and the act was condemned throughout the country.
Speaking about the incident, Savita said: "We were off social media and we came to know later about what happened with Vandana Katariya's family, every player gives their best for the country and we can just request that something like this never happens again."
( With inputs from ANI )
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