The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Triumphant under-18 women's team returns

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Wednesday, Jul 19, 2006

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Sport - Hockey

Triumphant under-18 women's team returns

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Holding back the cards and playing them when it matters is an art. The Indian under-18 women's hockey team, coached by Dronacharya Gurdial Singh Bangu, showed its mastery as it defeated host Japan 1-0 with a golden goal by Harpreet Kaur, after having lost to the same opponent 0-2 in the league phase of the four-Nation tournament at Gifu, Japan recently.

In a chat with The Hindu on Tuesday, the captain of the team Ritu Rani expressed joy on winning the title even as she stressed that the team had aimed for gold and nothing less in the first place when it left for its maiden international outing.

"We gave a chance for everyone in the team in the league match against Japan as we had already qualified for the final. Thus, that defeat did not hurt much. In the final, we played a tough game and our goalkeeper Poonam Toppo brought off many saves as she had done consistently throughout the tournament.

"At the end of the first half of extra-time, we got a penalty corner and that led to another penalty corner. Centre-half Harpreet converted it into a golden goal,'' said Ritu, a 11th standard student of Shri Guru Nanak Pritam Girls Senior Secondary School, Shahbad.

A star striker in the making, Ritu was among the goals in the second league match against Malaysia that India won 5-0. She scored twice as India led 4-0 at the interval and was ably assisted by Manorama Asem, Anuradha Devi and Vinita Xess in building a convincing margin.

Healthy proportion

The captain revealed that the team scored four of its seven goals in the tournament through penalty corners and said that it was a healthy proportion.

India had started off nicely with a 1-0 win against the speedy Koreans, with Vinita Xess converting a penalty corner with a smart deflection midway through the second-half. "Korea was a good team and played out a 1-1 draw against Japan,'' recalled Ritu.

The captain was all praise for the team's defence and described the performance of full-backs Joydeep Kaur and Harmanjeet Kaur as outstanding. The half-line was manned by Rosalind Ralte, Harpreet Kaur, Manorama Asem and Amubi Devi.

Asked whether she felt ready to get into the main Indian team, Ritu said that the whole batch would mature in time to possibly play a big role in the Commonwealth Games to be held here in 2010.

The Indian Women's Hockey Federation (IWHF) had planned to felicitate the victorious team on Tuesday, but it was shelved as the coach and eight of the 18 players had to rush to Bhopal for another training camp.

Maybe, it is the just the beginning, and the celebrations can wait.

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