 "India captain Harmanpreet Singh carries veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who made his final international appearance on Thursday, on his shoulders during the team's lap of honour after their 2-1 victory over Spain in the Paris Olympics men's hockey bronze medal match. AP")
India finally ended their week-long medal drought in the Paris Olympics on Thursday, winning bronze in men’s hockey with a 2-1 victory over Spain.
Paris Olympics: News, schedule, medals tally and moreIndia captain Harmanpreet Singh (30’, 33’) fired his team to a podium finish with a brace, striking twice in a space of three minutes around the halfway stage. This was after Marc Miralles (18’) put the Spaniards in the lead through a penalty stroke three minutes into the second quarter.
Ace drag-flicker Harmanpreet finished as the leading goal-scorer in the men’s hockey event in Paris 2024, scoring 10 goals across the competition — seven of them through penalty corners and three off penalty strokes.
India thus won their fourth medal in the Paris Games, this being the first to not be won by the shooting team.
India at Paris 2024 | Full schedule and results, event-wise medal tally
It was also a perfect send-off for veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who had earlier indicated that the Paris Olympics would be his swansong.
The Indian men’s hockey team also won a medal in consecutive Olympics for the first time since they won bronze in 1968 and 1972. It took their overall medal count in hockey at the Olympics to 13 - eight gold, one silver and now four bronze.
With Belgium and Australia, who had won gold and silver respectively in 2020, India are the only team to finish on the podium of both the Tokyo and the Paris Games.
India had won bronze in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — their first Olympic medal in the sport since winning gold in Moscow 1980 — with a 5-4 victory over Germany.
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The Germans, however, would avenge their Tokyo heartbreak with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Harmanpreet and Co, progressing to the gold medal match.
India bounce back from a goal down
It was an offensive start from India as they penetrated Spain’s defence regularly in the first 15 minutes and created the first scoring chance of the match in the sixth minute.
Vice-captain Hardik Singh created a fine move from the right and passed the ball into the D to Sukhjeet Singh, whose shot went just wide of the left side Spanish goal as the Europeans survived.
The Spanish, who had suffered a 0-4 drubbing at the hands of Netherlands in the semi-finals, came with more purpose and intensity in the second quarter and pressed hard on the Indian goal. They took the lead in the 18th minute through a penalty stroke conversion by Miralles after Manpreet Singh conceded an unnecessary foul inside the D.
Spain kept up the tempo and secured back-to-back penalty corners in the 20th minute but the Indians defended stoutly. In the 28th minute, Spain secured another penalty corner after Borja Lacalle hit the post but it went in vain.
Still trailing, India pressed hard on the Spain defence and secured their first penalty corner in the 29th minute but could not convert.
Just 21 seconds from half-time, Manpreet compensated for his fault by earning India another penalty corner and this time Harmanpreet was bang on target.
India got another penalty corner in the 35th minute but Harmanpreet’s fierce stroke was blocked by Spain goalkeeper Luis Calzado.
Mandeep Singh’s terrific run from the left flank resulted in another short corner but Spanish on-rusher Jordi Bonastre took a blow on his left knee to deny India.
Sreejesh then foiled an attempt from Spain as India kept its 2-1 lead till the end of third quarter.
Hardik had to be taken off the field five minutes after the fourth quarter after he collided with a rival player to suffer a hand injury.
This was after India yet again made a short corner save. It was Manpreet, who mistakenly landed the ball on Hardik’s foot.
However, Marc Recasens hit wide, much to the relief of the Indian camp.
Three minutes from the final hooter, Spain took off goalkeeper Calzado in a desperate attempt to find equaliser but India made no mistake in the dying moments.
Netherlands defeat Germany to win gold
The Germans had beaten the Dutch during their Pool A clash by a slender 1-0 margin.
However, in the most important match of them all, Netherlands triumphed over Germany 3-1 on penalties after the two teams finished with a goal apiece at the time of the final hooter.
Thierry Brinkman broke the deadlock and put the Dutchmen in the lead a minute into the final quarter. The Germans, however, would fire the equaliser just four minutes later with Thies Prinz successfully scoring off a penalty corner.
The shootout, meanwhile, was even more dramatic as the two goalkeepers began with a couple of successful saves each before Brinkman once again broke the deadlock. Netherlands would go 2-0 up before Justus Weigand opened Germany’s account in the shootout.
However, Duco Telgenkamp’s subsequent successful strike sealed the gold medal in Netherlands’ favour.
_With PTI inputs
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