India aim winning start in Jr hockey WC

The Indian junior women’s team, led by Salima Tete, are all geared up for the FIH Junior World Cup starting from April 1. The coveted quadrennial tournament was postponed from December 2021 due to the omicron-threat in South Africa. Captain Salima Tete, who had led the U-18 team to a historic Silver medal at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018, said, “There is a lot of excitement among the players. Everyone has worked so hard for this moment and used the postponement to gain better exposure, improve as a team so we can put up our best performance here.” Reflecting on the team’s preparations for the mega event she said: “Coming here early has helped us tremendously. We have been able to get a good amount of training sessions here which has helped in acclimatizing to the weather. It gets very warm and humid during the day. It definitely helped to have our last camp in Bhubaneswar, where we trained in quite hot conditions, before coming to South Africa. “Team is confident of putting up our best performance. We are well-prepared and have a good mix of experienced players. Our aim will be to take it match-by-match, get off to a good start and play as per plan.” India, will begin its campaign against Wales on April 2 followed by their second Pool D match against Germany. They will take on Malaysia in the last group stage match. The quarterfinals will be played on April 7 and 8, while the semi-finals and final will be held on April 10 and 12, respectively.

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