The Indian Men’s Hockey team made history on Thursday as they clinched the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 to bring joy to over 1.4 billion countrymen after two days filled with disappointments. Following the win, goalkeeper and former captain PR Sreejesh retired from the sport.
Harmanpreet Singh led from the front, scoring both goals as India came back from behind to beat Spain 2-1 in the bronze medal clash.
Harmanpreet (30th, 33rd minutes) scored twice off penalty corners after Spain’s captain, Marc Miralles, caught everyone off guard by giving his team an early lead in the 18th minute with a penalty stroke.
India bounced back quickly, showing some serious mental toughness to grab another spot on the podium at the world’s biggest sporting event. This comes just three years after they broke a 41-year medal drought by winning bronze in Tokyo.
Spain had taken the lead through Miralles in the first quarter before the Indian skipper brought his team back into the contest in the second quarter.
Harmanpreet put India ahead in the third quarter after which the former world champions managed to keep their one-goal cushion, seeing off some nervy moments and late attacks from the Spanish team to end up victorious.
India managed to give a near-perfect send-off to legendary goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who had announced his retirement from international hockey before the Olympics began.
The 36-year-old Sreejesh came up with some excellent saves throughout the tournament and managed to leave his mark in the final game of his illustrious career that spanned 18 years.
This is India’s second successive Olympic bronze after Tokyo 2020 and 13th medal overall in the Summer Games. India, which is the most successful hockey team in history, has won 8 golds, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals at the Olympics.
This is the second time after 1968 and 1972 Games that India has bagged back-to-back medals at the Olympic Games.
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected to India)
