[Watch] PR Sreejesh and Indian hockey team players celebrate Paris Olympics 2024 bronze medal victory in dressing room
The Indian national field hockey team’s joy knew no bounds after they won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics 2024. On Thursday, August 8, India beat Spain 2-1 in the third-place playoff match.
Since winning gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, India had to wait for 41 years to win another medal as they won bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021) after beating Germany 5-4.
This time around, India faced Germany in the semi-finals and lost 3-2. But instead of getting bogged down, the players came out firing on all cylinders against their Spanish opponents.
After winning the match, the Indian team went into the dressing room to rejoice. Everyone, including skipper Harmanpreet Singh, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, and Manpreet Singh, celebrated wholeheartedly.
Amit Rohidas, who was banned from India’s semi-final against Germany for hitting a Great Britain player's face during the quarter-final, was also there with the team in their celebrations.
Watch the video here:
Happy ending for PR Sreejesh and India at Paris Olympics 2024
Back in 2021, legendary goalkeeper PR Sreejesh won his maiden Olympic medal. The veteran has now signed off with his second medal in the quadrennial event.
In July this year, Sreejesh announced that he would retire from international hockey after the showpiece event in Paris. In his last international tournament, the 36-year-old put his best foot forward and made crucial saves in crunch moments.
India did not make the best of starts against Spain as they trailed 0-1 and were put under immense pressure. Marc Miralles scored in the 18th minute to give Spain a crucial lead.
However, Harmanpreet Singh was quick to equalize. The captain scored two goals in three minutes to put India in the driver’s seat. After going 1-2 down, Spain could never get a foothold back into the contest.
Earlier in the tournament, Spain pulled off an upset after beating defending champions Belgium 3-2 in the quarterfinals. However, India did not let Spain get the better of them.