New Delhi: Encouraged by her experience on the Valencia tour, young forward Jyoti Chhatri is now eyeing a place in the Indian women’s hockey team for the FIH Olympic Qualifiers to be held in Ranchi next year.
The 19-year-old player was part of the Indian team in the recently concluded 5-nation tournament in Valencia. She has been a key figure in the junior team setup since last year and has played all six matches for India at the Junior World Cup, and scored a goal during the thrilling 3-3 (3-2 SO) win over New Zealand.
She also played a key role during India’s gold medal-winning performance at the Women’s Junior Asia Cup this year.
“The preparation tour in Valencia has boosted my confidence as an individual and I am hopeful that I will get a chance to be a part of the Indian team for the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier Ranchi 2024,” he said in a press release issued by Hockey India. ‘India (His).
“The past year has really helped me develop as a player and I’m looking forward to taking advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. “The senior players, coaches and support staff have supported me completely and helped me a lot whenever I needed it. It is every player’s dream to represent India at the Olympics, and our journey to Paris as a team will hopefully begin in January.” While Jyoti had won the 4-nation Women’s Invitation Tournament in Barcelona earlier this year, Started his senior team. The 5 Nations tournament in England and Valencia was another good opportunity for him to compete against some of the top teams – Ireland, Germany, Spain and Belgium.
Jyoti believes that her experience at Valencia has helped her develop as a player. “I am very pleased to have been included in the squad for the Valencia tour. “When you get the chance to train with the senior team it’s always a great learning opportunity,” he said.
”Playing competitive matches against such strong opponents also helped me understand the tenacity and mental strength required to fight to win at the highest level.” India started the tournament by losing 2-3 to Spain and 1-1 to Belgium. With a loss of 2. In Valencia. After losing 1-3 to Germany in their third game of the competition, India recorded a thrilling 2-1 win over Ireland to end their campaign on a positive note.
Jyoti said, “Although the results on the tour were not in our favour, we could identify the important areas we had to focus on and we were able to improve with each game.
”It was an important series for us because there are big tournaments coming up next year. We feel we were able to learn a lot from the series, which helped our development as a team.” India will compete in the Olympic Qualifiers in Ranchi with the aim of securing a berth at the Paris Games.
India will begin their campaign against the US on January 13 before taking on New Zealand on January 14. Their last match in Pool B will be against Italy on 16 January. Pool A includes Germany, Japan, Chile, Czech Republic.
