Nagoya: The Indian men’s hockey team successfully defended their Asian Games crown for the very first time in the sport’s history at Aichi-Nagoya two days back, defeating Malaysia 5-1 in the final. With this victory, the Harmanpreet Singh-led team also secured their direct qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Talking exclusively to SAI Media, Head Coach for the Indian men’s national team, Craig Fulton said that LA 2028 is not far away and that once the Hockey India League (HIL) gets over, he will have to build a new team afresh. This will include infusing more young faces in the team in order to strike a fine balance between youth and experience.
“LA 2028 is within two years. It seems a long way off, but it obviously comes around pretty quick. I think at the moment we’re just trying to get the right schedule, the right planning in place, the big blocks of what is the preparation like, two years out, one year out, six months out, and plan accordingly to that. Yeah, I think every team has its phases at and flows with experience and youth. We have a good group of experienced players with us now,” Craig Fulton told SAI Media. “We have some youth, but we have a lot of youth in the Indian A team and a strong Under-21 team as well, which is great. So in the next two-three months, I think just post the Hockey India League, we’ll have a look at all the talent that we have, choose new squad, and start afresh from there,” the 51-year-old added. This was the fifth Gold medal overall for the Indian men’s hockey team in the continental sports extravaganza after 1966 Bangkok, 1998 Bangkok, 2014 Incheon and 2022 Hangzhou editions.
Fulton, who represented South Africa in the 1996 and 2004 Summer Olympic Games, said defending back-to-back gold medals was always special. “Personally, this Asian Games was very unique. It was very different to the last Asian Games as we were isolated out here in a sense of away from the other events and athletes. There was no so-called Games Village. But at the same time, we had our own routine. We went to the field, we played, we came back, and everything is the same. But Hangzhou, being the first gold medal, was very special. But to come back and defend it back-to-back golds is always special,” he said.
India edged past arch-rivals Pakistan 4-3 by scoring in the dying minutes of the match at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium, squandering a 3-0 lead. Captain Harmanpreet Singh (5’, 13’) and Sukhjeet Singh (23’) gave India a 3-0 lead but Abu Mahmood (30’), Hannan Shahid (45’) and Waheed Rana (49’) brought Pakistan back on level terms. It was Abhishek who scored in the final minute of the match to take India into the men’s final.“Everything did go according to plan. We had a really good first half, and then the third quarter was difficult. Pakistan is that team that if you give them any free opportunities, they take them and they are a great team, and they showed that. They came back nicely and put us under a lot of pressure from 3-0 to 3-all. We still had some good chances in that period, but we couldn’t finish, we couldn’t score. And found a way in the last minute to do so and to get the fourth goal, which helped us make the final,” Fulton said. The feat was a first-ever double gold finish for the men’s and women’s hockey teams at the Asian Games. It was only the third Indian team sport to have a double gold finish after Kabaddi and Cricket at Aichi-Nagoya. The turnaround was fuelled by Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) support of INR 77.8 Crore on both the men’s and women’s hockey teams including national coaching camp, international competition exposure, remuneration of foreign coach and equipment support, among others. “I think the government is our biggest supporter in terms of the resources and the funds that they put forward to helping the grassroots programs all the way through to the 18s, 21s, seniors. Without them, obviously, I don’t know what would happen if they didn’t put as much support and resources around. But at the same time, by doing that the girls stand on the podium winning gold for the first time in 44 years. And we’re fortunate enough to go back to back. Yes, that’s domination in Asia. “We obviously want to do that on the world stage. And the women had a fantastic World Cup, and the men obviously had a fantastic Paris. So the balance is there. The resources are there. But the main thing is we just got to keep pushing forward to find the talent and expose it on the international platform,” he signed off.
