Indian women's hockey team loses 3-4 to Great Britain in Tokyo Olympics

Tokyo: Indian women suffered heartbreak as they went down fighting to Great Britain 3-4 in the bronze medal match, at the Tokyo Olympics here on Friday.

Having made it to the bronze-medal match, the Rani Rampal-led side rallied from a 0-2 deficit to lead the Game at 3-2. However, Great Britain, the gold medallists from the Rio Olympics, rallied to victory. The World No.7 Indian team’s run came to an end. However, they won many hearts with their gritty show. Entering the Olympics, India were not considered favourites and a place in knockout was their realistic chances.

After narrowly making it to the Quarterfinals, they stunned World No.2 Australians 1-0 to enter semifinals. But they went down 2-1 to Argentina. India now finished 4th to end the tournament with their heads held high.

India’s best performance at the Olympics was in the 1980 Olympics where they finished fourth in the field of six teams. This is the first time they entered the bronze medal match.

After



an insipid first half, Great Britain took the lead in the first minute of the second quarter. Deep Grace Ekka tried to thwart a stroke from Britain’s Elen Rayer but the ball deflected into the goal post off the Indian defender. Sarah Robertson then scored the second goal for Britain in the 24th minute. However, in the very next minute, Gurjit Kaur converted a penalty corner to reduce the margin and found the equaliser two minutes later on the another penalty corner.

Vandana Katariya then scored for India putting the Women In Blue in 3-2 lead going into the half time. The European team bounced back in the third quarter through a goal in the 34th minute through their captain Hollie Webb Pearne. The Indians tried hard and gave everything in pursuit of a goal but Grace Baldson converted a penalty corner in the fourth quarter to seal the bronze for the Britain team.

The Indian team was left in tears after letting go of the chance of their first-ever Olympic medal.