One of our most important achievements: Hardik Singh after India retains hockey gold

Hardik Singh is not only perhaps the most important member of the Indian men’s hockey team; he is also one of the most passionately honest players around. The vice-captain of the side was exhausted, emotional and extremely proud after the final as India retained the Asian Games title for the first time ever.

“I think it was one of the most important achievements we can ever have, because of what happened at the World Cup. It was tough to handle physically, but even more so mentally, we were exhausted. We had been working very hard from a very long time to do something at the World Cup and that didn’t go our way,” he admitted.

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The World Cup disaster’s shadow loomed large over the Indian team ahead of the Asian Games, raising questions over its prospects despite the clear superiority over other sides in the continent. The doubts took a toll mentally and emotionally, he said.

“We knew we had to win gold only here. There were so many complications due to accommodation, training, etc, but we didn’t want to say anything about all that because in our mind, there was only one task, to win gold here. Personally, it was the hardest Asian tournaments I can ever be part of because physically, you can adjust but mentally, 24×7 the only thought in our minds was to be consistent here and win every match,” he revealed.

The fact that he belongs to an illustrious lineage of Olympic champions makes it natural for him to play hockey but the 28-year-old insisted that the toughest challenge after the World Cup was to find again the joy of playing for the sake of it, forgetting results.

“I started hockey because I enjoyed it. That was my main target, to get back to enjoying the game and it was very difficult to find that joy again. When there is the hope of a nation from you to do something at the World Cup and that doesn’t happen, a lot of things were said, there are talks all around, people start doubting you.

“But we know we gave our 100 percent and the team was together and we knew we can do something. This is the first time the Indian team won gold back-to-back, I only request everyone to enjoy this feeling,” he smiled.

Coach Craig Fulton, meanwhile, was proud of his wards after the tense moments against Pakistan in the semifinal. “We played a great game. We almost needed that semi-final to get into this mindset and I’m proud of the guys because the first half’s performance from Malaysia, they did really well. We stuck to our guns but they scored a world-class goal. Coming in 2-1 (at half time), it was tight and then our third quarter was immense and I think that was the difference. We played a very nice, soft-touch game today,” Fulton said.

Admitting that qualifying for the LA Olympics was the main task for the year, Fulton insisted that the Asian Games was the priority, regardless of anything that happened at the World Cup. “Had we won the World Cup, we still would have had to come here and play and obviously the World Cup didn’t go the way we wanted it to so I’m glad we dominated in Asia, this was important for us,” he accepted.

The close semifinal against Pakistan, he agreed, was the shake-up the team needed. “We just had a good debrief. We were honest with the way we played and I think the occasion got to us a little bit, because if we didn’t get four and five goals and make one or two mistakes, Pakistan get their tail up and they can play and score goals. I’m glad we found a way to win that game because I think that helped us in this final,” he added.