We need to live up to expectations now, says Hockey player Savita Punia

Indian Women's Hockey player Savita Punia said that they need to live up to expectations and perform well in every tournament following their successful outing in Tokyo Olympics last year.

"Yes, no one expected we will go beyond the quarter-finals in the Olympic Games. Many of our supporters thought we would reach upto the quarter-finals at the outset, but I don't think anyone believed we could win the quarter-finals. This zeal to win and not to give up till the last second of the match was inculcated by our coaching staff. We had to, and we knew we would change the script of Tokyo," she said.

"Having finished fourth in Tokyo, everyone took notice of us. Earlier, there were expectations from the men's team only. But now, people expect the women also to finish in top three in any tournament we play and that is good for the sport," added the experienced goalkeeper who will lead the Indian team in the FIH Pro League matches in Europe ahead of the FIH Women's World Cup which begins in July.

Speaking about the team's preparations here in SAI, Bengaluru, for the Pro League and World Cup Savita said, "There is a lot of excitement ahead of the Pro League matches in Europe as well as the Women's World Cup. Last time, we exited in the quarterfinals but this time we will do our best to finish in the top 4."

Having already dealt with the postponement of the Olympic Games which was rescheduled for 2021 due to the pandemic, the Indian team is yet again faced with the same situation where the Asian Games are postponed indefinitely.

But Savita expressed optimism, she said, "We will once again deal with this postponement as an opportunity to train and be better prepared for the Asian Games. The one-year postponement for the Olympics gave us significant time to improve and personally for me, I got to work closely with Janneke who had a great impact on my improvement as a goalkeeper."

( With inputs from ANI )