Deep Grace Ekka Exclusive: 'Indian women's hockey team is going to Asian Games with only one aim, to win gold'

Going into the Asian Games 2023, the goal and the expectation for the Indian women’s hockey team is crystal clear — a gold medal. Being the highest-ranked team in the women’s event, anything less than gold would be seen as a failure. Also, a gold at Hangzhou 2022 doesn’t only guarantee glory but also a direct ticket to the Olympic Games Paris 2024. India are part of Pool A which consists of Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Korea, and is being seen as a relatively easy group. Ranking and stature, however, have never been a guarantee for the gold medal at the Asian Games. Despite being the favourites, India could only win a silver at the last edition in 2018 (Indonesia) as Japan took the gold. In 2014 in South Korea, India could only bag the bronze. India’s vice-captain and penalty corner specialist, Deep Grace Ekka, was part of the team in both the 2014 and 2018 Asiads. The 29-year-old from Odisha’s Sundargarh, the hotbed of hockey talent, is once again going to be one of the most crucial players for India at the Games. Firstpost caught up with the defender ahead of the Asiad to find out about India’s preparation, gold medal chances, and coach Janneke Schopman**.** Excerpts: How is the environment within the team and can you share how you guys are preparing for the Asian Games? Deep: We are all very excited about the Games. Asian Games is very important for us as it offers a direct entry into the Paris Olympics 2024. We have worked very hard in the training, focussing on all the aspects including attack and defence. Last time Indian women’s team won silver at the Asian Games while the expectations were of gold. How much pressure can you feel going into Asian Games 2023? There’s always pressure. In every tournament, you will feel the pressure. In 2014, we won bronze and in 2018, we won the silver but the gold is missing. That has created an environment where we are all aiming for gold. Everyone is speaking about the gold in the camp and Paris qualification and that is going to work as a motivation for us in China. We are going to China with only one aim, to win the gold. Let’s talk about coach Janneke Schopman, who took over after the team made history by reaching the semi-finals at the Toko Olympic Games. How different is she as a coach and person? How has the team changed under her? Every coach has their own philosophy and style. Janneke herself is a very hardworking person, so she sets an example with her actions. Before our training sessions, she works very hard on her fitness, does running and that motivates us to also work hard. I really like her attention to detail and her style of explaining things to us; where we were weak and where we could improve. Most importantly, the way she motivates us after we make a mistake, is what I like the most about her. You are one of the penalty corner experts and the team will rely on PCs heavily for the goals. What sort of work has been done on that front? With the number of field goals coming down, we are focussing a lot of our penalty corner conversion and variation. There’s always so much to learn. We are also observing other teams to take some lessons. Which teams do you think can be a big challenge for India? All teams will come into the competition with their best preparation. We don’t need to focus much on other teams. We need to play to our strengths and make sure that we give our best in each game.