India's training commences for World Hockey League Finals
The Indian Men's hockey team will begin their preliminary training camp for their Hockey World League final from September 5th to 29th. The camp will take place in Major Dhyanchand hockey stadium in New Delhi. Rigorous training sessions await the twenty-six players who will be assessed according to their strengths and weaknesses and whose skills will be accordingly refined. Roelant Oltmans, Director High Performance, Hockey India and Chief Coach underscored the importance of the imminent tournament as it would give an insight into the pros and cons of the team which would need focus leading up to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The young team ,helmed by Sardar Singh, are high on confidence after a good showing in the recently concluded European Tour, in which they emerged victorious over France and Spain, gaining valuable experience in European hockey in the process.
The Hockey World League is a two-year tournament where teams will vie with each other for a spot in the Hockey World Cup as well as the Olympics. Belgium and Australia face-off for the top spot while India will battle Great Britain for the last spot on the podium. The Indian squad is made up of:
Goalkeeper: PR Sreejesh, Harjot Singh, Akash Chikte.
Defenders: Birender Lakra, Kothajit Singh, VR Raghunath, Jasjit Singh Kular, Rupinder Pal Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Pardeep Mor.
Midfielders: Sardar Singh, Chinglensana Singh, SK Uthappa, Satbir Singh, Danish Mujtaba, Devinder Walmiki, Manpreet Singh, Dharamvir Singh.
Forwards: SV Sunil, Ramandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Talwinder Singh, Lalit Upadhyay, Mohd. Amir Khan, Nikkin Thimmaiah.