Beyond the 70 minutes

Images of the Indian women’s hockey team members sobbing, inconsolably so, after the 4-3 loss to England in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medal play-off, were a gut-punch. The Rani Rampal-led squad, heroic as they were, had missed out on a podium finish.

Nonetheless, the team was celebrated for reinstilling lost belief in hockey fans back home. And it was all courtesy the core group: one that had also helped India win its first only Junior World Cup medal back in 2013.

Roll back to Monchengladbach, Germany. The young and dynamic Sushila Chanu had led the team into the medal rounds. They were playing at a speed and strategy alien to Indian hockey at the time.

The nimble-footed forward Vandana Kataria was scoring hat-tricks, the dexterous midfielder Monika Malik was lapping up goals in the attacking circle, the imposing Deep Grace Ekka and Sanarik Ningombam were holding fort in defence. It was all falling into place until a semi-final loss to the mighty Dutch sent them into the bronze medal play-off against England.

Similarities between the Monchengladbach and Tokyo Olympics campaigns are aplenty — a familiar final foe in the form of England, Vandana’s hat-trick, Rani in a standout role, Monika and Sushila orchestrating the midfield. The outcomes, however, differ.

Picture this: Bigan Soy, India’s reserve goalkeeper who had not stepped onto the field at all was tasked with bringing home what would be a famous World Cup medal in the shoot-out after a 1-1 tie in regulation time.

Anna Toman and Co. came at Soy, but she did not let any ball through in the first four attempts. Into sudden death, Rani and Navneet Kaur netted goals and Soy stood opposite England’s best, Anna, one final time. Refusing to back down, she stepped out of the post, blocked the Englishwoman’s first hit, leapt at the ball and swept it away into history books.

“It now feels as if I played the whole tournament,” the Singhbhum-born player, swarmed by overjoyed teammates, said of her 15 minutes under the bar.

The Indian team came back heroines heralding a new era of Indian hockey. Rani, Monika, Vandana, Deep, even Navjot Kaur, Namita Toppo and Lilima Minz, remained a part of the Indian core group for the next decade or so, winning medals and hearts with their path-breaking careers. Navneet and Sushila are still a part of the squad, linking the not-too-distant past of Indian women’s hockey to the future.

Hockey wins only take 60 minutes (70 back then) of disciplined play, but a lifetime’s worth of work goes into honing skills and building a system for players to thrive in. Crusaders for Indian women’s hockey have been few and far between. That is part of why the Tokyo Olympics run came as a surprise to many, despite the obvious talents of the Monchengladbach squad.

Sjoerd Marijne, the man who coached the side to Tokyo, was an exception: “We did not win a medal, but I think we have won something bigger. We have made Indians proud again and we inspired millions of girls that dreams come true as long as you work hard for it and believe it,” he said with a sense of belief that the team deserved all along.

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