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Hangzhou, October 6 (IANS) Indian men's hockey team chief coach Craig Fulton on Friday said he was not surprised that his team reclaimed the Asian Games gold and said this gives them more than one year to plan and implement a programme for the Olympic Games in Paris.
"I am not surprised that we won the gold and qualified for the Olympic Games in Paris. We have played well and had good wins. The semifinal (win over South Korea) was a tough match," the coach after his team defeated Japan 5-1 in the final to win their fourth-ever gold medal in the Asian Games.
Later in the official press conference, the coach elaborated on the victory by saying that it gives them time to prepare for the Paris Olympics.
What this means for the Indian men's hockey team is that it gets time to implement its own programme for Paris Olympics. The coach said they will sit down and make a detailed programme in the run-up to the Olympics. Next year, the Indian team will be playing the FIH Pro League.
The coach said there will be competitions and camps and they can run their own programme without the botheration of participating in the Olympic Qualifiers.
Asked to assess the performance in Asian Games with the one in the Asian Champions Trophy that India won under his stewardship just before coming to Hangzhou, the coach said the two wins in the first five months of his tenure as India's coach were different and the squads were different. India won the Asian Champions Trophy soon after returning from a tour of Europe. "The pressure at the Asian Games is totally different. If we had lost here, we had one more chance, whereas, in ACT, we didn't had that luxury.
Former India skipper Manpreet Singh, who scored India's opening goal in the final thanked his teammates for helping him, along with Sreejesh, the only two players in Indian hockey to win two gold medals in the Asian Games. Manpreet and Sreejesh were both part of the team that won the gold medal in 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
"Yeah, Sree (goalkeeper PR Sreejesh) told me this just before the medal ceremony and it is unbelievable. We shared so much together and today, we did it again. So it's great. I would like to thank my teammates for their contribution in the win," said Manpreet, who was declared the player of the match for his performance.
