By Jagdish Yadav
New Delhi [India], October 5 (ANI): ‘It feels actually nice,’ India males’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh stated after returning to the nationwide capital with the Asian Video games 2026 gold medal, including that direct qualification for the Los Angeles Olympics has given the crew a possibility to organize particularly for the worldwide showpiece.
The Indian males’s hockey crew obtained a grand welcome on the Indira Gandhi Worldwide Airport on Monday after efficiently defending its Asian Video games title in Aichi-Nagoya.
‘We have come again with the medal and we have certified immediately for LA [Olympics], so I am simply very joyful,’ Harmanpreet instructed ANI.
India defeated Malaysia 5-1 within the males’s hockey ultimate to retain the Asian Video games gold, finishing a clear sweep for the nation within the crew sports activities after the ladies’s hockey crew additionally claimed the highest prize.
Harmanpreet, who was additionally a part of India’s 2022 Asian Video games gold-medal successful aspect, stated the crew would now use the time earlier than the Los Angeles Olympics to deal with areas that want enchancment.
‘We’ll make good use of no matter time we have now. We’ll focus extra on the areas the place we have to enhance, and positively hold the gold goal in thoughts. We simply hope the crew exhibits the identical type on a stage just like the Olympics and does properly,’ he stated.
India’s highway to the gold included a dramatic 4-3 win over arch-rivals Pakistan within the semi-final. Harmanpreet scored twice in that contest earlier than Abhishek struck within the ultimate minute to seal India’s place within the title conflict.
Veteran midfielder and former skipper Manpreet Singh, who gained his third Asian Video games gold and is a four-time Olympian, stated the crew’s perception remained intact even when Pakistan fought again from 3-0 all the way down to stage the semi-final.
‘It was that we should always do our greatest. Hold loads of management over our feelings, execute our recreation construction and recreation plan, and we will certainly win. And this was it, to provide our greatest from begin to end, that is what occurred. We performed fairly properly within the first-half. Our first half was fairly good. Within the second-half we made a small mistake the place they equalized and it turned 3-3. However even after that, it was about giving our greatest, taking part in till the very finish. Even when it had went to a shootout, we had a superb shootout gamers. We had full confidence that we are going to win,’ he instructed ANI.
Manpreet stated the direct qualification for LA 2028 would permit the crew to focus on bettering itself slightly than worrying about qualification.
‘This win was fairly essential as a result of we have now already certified for LA Olympics. So we needn’t assume an excessive amount of about qualification proper now. So we are able to work on ourselves proper now, on our health and the issues the place we are able to enhance ourselves in order that after we go to LA, there isn’t any space the place we’ve not labored and everybody will concentrate on health proper now,’ he stated.
Midfielder Hardik Singh, in the meantime, stated the Asian Video games gold was significantly vital after India’s disappointing World Cup marketing campaign.
‘It feels actually good as a result of since final 12 months, our objective was to deliver a gold medal on the Asian Video games. However I feel that someplace, the World Cup was a little bit of a disappointment for us. In order that’s why this Asian Video games gold medal may be very particular for us,’ he stated.
Hardik additionally hailed the ladies’s hockey crew’s achievement after it ended a 44-year look forward to an Asian Video games medal by beating China 1-0 within the ultimate.
‘Huge congratulations to the women’ crew for his or her achievement which is presently above ours. As a result of within the 1980S, they gained the Gold medal, and now after 40-odd years, they’re getting a gold medal and so they have crushed a crew like China within the ultimate. So, an enormous congratulations to them,’ he stated.
The ladies’s crew secured India’s first girls’s hockey gold on the Asian Video games since 1982, with Lalremsiami scoring the decisive objective within the tenth minute. Each Indian hockey groups consequently secured direct qualification for the Los Angeles Olympics.
Defender Jarmanpreet Singh stated the Asian Video games gold was essential for the crew following the World Cup and welcomed the direct Olympic qualification.
‘Feeling fairly good as a result of this medal was crucial for us. As a result of after the World Cup, this was our subsequent main occasion, and it was crucial for us to carry out properly in it,’ he instructed ANI.
On the Pakistan semi-final, Jarmanpreet stated, ‘We began the match with the mindset that we have now to win this match and are available out of it, and we have now to stay to all our structural plans, and we saved taking part in in the identical approach till the final minute. Someplace within the center we lagged, it turned 3-3, however even after that our crew carried out properly and fought till the final minute, and the result’s in entrance of us that we gained that match 4-3.’
Ahead Mandeep Singh, in the meantime, stated the boys’s and ladies’s groups making historical past collectively made the marketing campaign much more particular. Mandeep is married to Udita Duhan, an Indian area hockey participant, after the couple tied the knot in March 2025.
‘It feels excellent and we have now gained back-to-back medals. We now have created historical past, so it feels actually nice. That is the primary time the boys’s and ladies’s groups have gained a gold collectively, and it is a matter of nice pleasure,’ he stated.
India’s males’s hockey gold was its fifth on the Asian Video games after earlier triumphs in 1966, 1998, 2014 and 2022. The ladies’s gold ended a 44-year wait, with the 2 victories marking the primary time India’s males’s and ladies’s hockey groups gained gold on the identical version of the Asian Video games.
With each groups now certified for LA 2028, the Indian hockey gamers return from Aichi-Nagoya with their fast focus shifting in direction of constructing on the Asian Video games success and making ready for the following Olympic problem. (ANI)
