Bengaluru, May 27 (FN Agency) One of the most successful goalkeepers in Indian women’s hockey, Savita Punia said that in Tokyo Olympics there were “expectations from the men’s team only” and no one expected “we would go beyond the quarterfinals.” The ace goalkeeper got candid in the latest episode of Hockey Te Charcha, a podcast series launched by Hockey India, and spoke about living up to the expectations of performing well in every tournament following their successful outing in Tokyo Olympics last year. “No one expected we would go beyond the quarterfinals in the Olympic Games. Many of our supporters thought we would reach to the quarterfinals at the outset, but I don’t think anyone believed we could win the quarterfinals. This zeal to win and not to give up till the last second of the match was inculcated by our coaching staff. We had to, and we knew we would change the script of Tokyo,” Savita said. “Having finished fourth in Tokyo, everyone took notice of us. Earlier, there were expectations from the men’s team only. But now, people expect the women also to finish in top three in any tournament we play and that is good for the sport,” she added.
Speaking about the team’s preparations here in SAI, Bengaluru, for the Pro League and World Cup Savita said: “There is a lot of excitement ahead of the Pro League matches in Europe as well as the Women’s World Cup. Last time, we exited in the quarterfinals but this time we will do our best to finish in the Top-4.” Having already dealt with the postponement of the Olympic Games which was rescheduled for 2021 due to the pandemic, the Indian team is yet again faced with the same situation where the Asian Games is postponed indefinitely. “We will once again deal with this postponement as an opportunity to train and be better prepared for the Asian Games. The one-year postponement for the Olympics gave us significant time to improve and personally for me, I got to work closely with Janneke who had a great impact on my improvement as a goalkeeper,” she said.