Indian Women's Hockey Core Group To Restart Training For Tokyo Olympics

The Indian women's hockey group will now be back at their national training camp in Bengaluru on Sunday.

They will be restarting their training sessions for the Tokyo Olympics after a break of nearly 10 days. However, before their training begins, the 25-member Olympic core group will have to go for a mandatory quarantine.

The Indian women's hockey team toured in Argentina and Germany early this year

Earlier, the Indian women's hockey team had played seven matches against Argentina, against its team. This tour in January 2021 was their first tour in nearly 12 months.

Then in February this year, the team travelled to Dusseldorf, Germany, and played four matches against their hosts' senior side.

Sjoerd Marijne, the chief coach spoke about the importance of the aforementioned matches. "Getting these matches were absolutely important for us to analyse the level we are at and the work required to improve in specific areas ahead of the Olympics," Marijne said. "In the upcoming camp too, we will be focusing on these areas and also keeping up with our fitness will be a priority."

Meanwhile, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) had announced a three-week "summer vacation" at many of its National Centres of Excellence due to the surge in the COVID-19 cases all over the country. However, it made an exception for the Olympic-bound athletes who have been permitted to train at their camps.

Who all are there in the Indian women's hockey core group?

The Indian women's hockey core group of 25 members consist of a list of goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, forwards, etc. The members who are a part of this core group include Rajani Etimarpu, Bichu Devi Kharibam, Deep Grace Ekka, Reena Khokhar, Manpreet Kaur, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Namita Toppo, Navjot Kaur, Navneet Kaur, among others.