Proud: Fans as India women’s hockey team’s Olympics fairytale run ends

The Indian women’s hockey team missed out on an Olympic bronze medal narrowly after suffering a 3-4 loss to Great Britain at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, on Friday. Playing in a bronze medal playoff, the Indian eves failed to secure its maiden Olympic medal in a seven-goal thriller. They had already scripted history by entering the semifinals of the Summer Games for the first time.

As the match ended and the result was out, the internet rallied behind the women’s team and said how proud they were of the Rani Rampal-led team.

“We narrowly missed a medal in Women’s Hockey but this team reflects the spirit of New India- where we give our best and scale new frontiers. More importantly, their success at Tokyo 2020 will motivate young daughters of India to take up Hockey and excel in it. Proud of this team,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

“We will always remember the great performance of our Women’s Hockey Team at Tokyo 2020. They gave their best throughout. Each and every member of the team is blessed with remarkable courage, skill and resilience. India is proud of this outstanding team,” he added.

“हॉकी का सुनहरा दौर वापस लौट आया है ! Don’t break down girls, you all played superb at Tokyo 2020 by reaching top 4 in the world! I appreciate our Women’s Hockey for making India proud,” Minister of Law and Justice, India, Kiren Rijiju tweeted.

As far as the match is concerned, world no.4 Great Britain came out on top in a pulsating tie. They were also the gold winners at the 2016 Rio edition.

This came a day after the Indian men’s team ended a 41-year-old medal drought by taking home the bronze with a 5-4 win over Germany.

The Indians played their hearts out and overcame a two-goal deficit to lead 3-2 at half time. But a desperate Great Britain gave their everything in the second half and scored two goals to snatch the match from India’s hands.

For India, Gurjit Kaur (25th, 26th minutes) and Vandana Katariya (29th) scored in a matter of five minutes to stun Great Britain.

But the opponent found the net four times through Elena Rayer (16th), Sarah Robertson (24th), skipper Hollie Pearne-Webb (35th) and Grace Baldson (48th) to emerge winners.

India’s best performance in the Olympics was a fourth place finish in the 1980 Moscow Games. In that edition, there were no semifinals as only six teams competed in a round-robin format with the top two featuring in the final.