“I hope we have made you proud?” asked Indian hockey coach Graham Reid when Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the team at Tokyo Olympics after their bronze-medal winning match against Germany. “You have created history,” was the PM’s answer to Reid’s query. Indian men’s hockey team did create history on Thursday by bringing home an Olympic medal after 41 years.

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The Prime Minister first spoke to Captain Manpreet Singh and congratulated him saying, “you and your team have done a wonderful job… the entire country is dancing,” To this Singh replies that PM’s blessings and encouragement helped them achieve the goal. In the video shared by ANI, one can see the phone being then passed on to assistant coach Piyush Dubey and after a round of congratulations, to Reid. 

All through the conversation, smiles are unmissable with the broadest one coming from Reid. “Your words the other day, after the semi-final, were very inspirational,” Reid said at the end of the conversation, PM paid back the compliment saying, “your hard work is yielding results… we are proud.”

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India, the eight-time former gold-winners, have been down and out past four decades. Today’s performance not only brings home the medal but also infuses new life into the sport.

In Today’s match Simranjeet scored two field goals for India. The other goal-getters were Hardik Singh, Harmanpreet Singh and Rupinder Pal Singh. Germany’s goals were scored by Timur Oruz (2nd), Niklas Wellen (24th), Benedikt Furk (25th) and Lukas Windfeder (48th).

Also read: Who is Simranjit Singh?

Determined to win a medal, the Indians came back from a two-goal deficit. Germany had gone 3-1 up in the 25th minute, but the Indians fought back to register a historic win. 

The historic win was followed by tears and hugs on the field as the Indians led by Manpreet Singh savoured the historic moment.

This is Indian hockey team’s third bronze medal in the history of Olympics. The other two came in 1968 Mexico City and the 1972 Munich Games.