Nagpur, July
City sporting fraternity celebrated the Indian men's hockey team's historic bronze medal-winning feat at the Olympic Games on Thursday.
A victory celebrations were organised at various places after in a pulsating bronze play-off, India edged past Germany 5-4 to earn a podium finish at the Games after 41 years.
Hockey players and officials gathered at Vidarbha Hockey Association (VHA) ground to celebrate the success. Fluttering the tri-colour and dancing to the tune of dholak, they celebrated the success.
Talking to Lokmat Times VHA administration and Arjuna awardee TN Sidhra said, “ Our men's team notched up remarkable victory in the Olympics. They played with a good combination and ultimately in resulted in a historic victory. I would like to give the credit to Odisha government for promoting hockey. The Maharashtra should also follow it and lay astroturf at various places. Now, we have great expectations from our women team”, he said.
National umpire and former VHA secretary Pramod Jain said, “ We have regained the lost glory. Our hockey team has ended the Olympic medal drought. This is remakrable achievement. On astro turf more than skill the game has become power-oriented. Therefore we should have more and more astro turfs in the country so that our players can compete with other strong nationals. In the lockdown inposed due to Covid pandemic our players really worked hard. Hockey lovers had not expected such feat from both men and women.”
Former NMC sports committee chairman and football promoter Nagesh Sahare has also hailed the Indian hockey team's success. “With this feat, they have captured the imagination of the entire nation. The man team had an upper hand right from the beginning and defeated strong Germany. This is a proud moment for all Indians and will definitely inspire the youth to attract towards sports”.