Bengaluru (Karnataka)[India], December 29 : The Indian Women's Hockey Team has had a great run in the year 2023. They missed out on direct qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games but bounced back to clinch the Jharkhand Women's Asian Champions Trophy Ranchi 2023. Furthermore, they have achieved their best-ever FIH World Rankings, which is a testament to their hard work and dedication.
With their focus solely pinned on winning the Gold medal at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, the Indian Team started the year with practice matches against South Africa and the Netherlands in January followed by a three-match tour to Australia in May 2023. They then participated in the 4 Nations Invitational Tournament in Terrassa where they remained unbeaten against the hosts Spain and England.
Following an action-packed first half of 2023, the Indian Women's Hockey Team clinched the Hockey5s Asia Cup held in Salalah in August 2023. They entered the Asian Games with a strong momentum. They were unbeaten in the pool stage of the tournament, but went down 0-4 against China in the Semi-Final, thus missing out on the Gold medal match and eventually ruling out of contention for direct qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. However, they returned home with a Bronze medal from China.
Looking back at an eventful year, India's ace goalkeeper and Captain Savita, expressed, "It has been a wonderful year, we had our ups and downs but we have grown from strength to strength as a team. There is one regret of missing out on the direct qualification for the Paris 2024, but it's part and parcel of sports. We have left that disappointment behind and have been focusing on our learnings."
India then went on to clinch the Jharkhand Women's Asian Champions Trophy Ranchi 2023 with a dominant 4-0 win over Japan in the Final and achieved their best-ever FIH World Rankings (No. 6 with 2368.83 points) in November.
"We are ending the year on a high; we had a great outing in Ranchi at the Asian Champions Trophy. We were unbeaten in the tournament and there have been a lot of learnings as well throughout the year. We have climbed to No. 6 in world rankings, which is our highest-ever, so this is something that will give us a major boost as we enter the New Year," Savita stated.
It will be a busy start to 2024 as India will take part in the all-important FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers Ranchi 2024 and the FIH Hockey5s World Cup Oman 2024 scheduled to be held in January. They will also make a comeback in the FIH Pro League 2023/24 season from February in Odisha.
"It will certainly be a busy start to the new year. We are focused on the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers Ranchi 2024 at the moment and are working very hard at the National Camp. We will be playing at the same venue where we won the Asian Champions trophy recently, so we have good memories of Ranchi. We are looking forward to an exciting 2024," Savita concluded.
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