Prabhjot Singh, a senior sports journalist, in his career spanning 40 years, has witnessed, and reported on six summer Olympic games, one winter Olympic games, seven World Cups in Hockey, FIFA World Cup in 2006, besides three World Cups in Cricket, and two editions of Pan Am Games (Toronto and Lima). He has also covered Asian Games (New Delhi and Jakarta) and Commonwealth games in Melbourne and New Delhi.
He will be in Paris from July 23, 2024 till August 13, 2024 to cover the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris which has the distinction of hosting the Olympic Games for a third time. Earlier , Paris hosted the Olympic Games in 1900 and 1924. The only other city to host Olympic Games three times is London which hosted Olympic Games in 1908, 1948 and 2012.
Readers of The Indian Panorama will get to read Prabhjot Singh’s special reports on Olympic Games 24 straight from Paris on a daily basis at www.theindianpanorama.news besides selected reports in the weekly editions. Prabhjot Singh can be reached at prabhjot416@gmail.com
India has done it again. It prevented a sweep by European teams in Olympic hockey while reasserting Asian presence among the top three. India’s convincing 2-1 win over Spain in a pulsating bronze medal reiterated that the similar position win in the previous edition of the Games was no fluke. Incidentally, both in Tokyo and here, India beat European opponents for the bronze medal match. In Tokyo, it was Germany.
Skipper Hamanpreet Singh again led the team from the front. He not only proved a big inspiration for all members of the team. He not only emerged as one of the top scorers of the tournament with an individual tally of 10 goals – six penalty corners and four penalty strokes – but also his presence on the field when the team needed him most proved in the battle for a second successive Olympic medal.
India was known for its longest trail of gold medal triumphs from 1928 to 1956. And now, it has its bronze medal trial with two triumphs in successive editions of the Olympic games.
It was Spain that drew the first blood. In the 18th minute when Gerard Clares was obstructed at the top of the penalty circle, a penalty stroke was awarded. It was greeted with a pin-drop silence as the stands were overflowing with fans of Indian hockey.
India decided to take it in its stride. Captain of Spain Marc Miralles made no mistake with the stroke to put his team ahead. The goal spurned the Indian team as it put everything in its game to restore parity as early as possible. With more ammunition in its firing line, it saw both Lalit and Hardik making valiant attempts on their opponent’s goal. In between Spain earned a penalty corner which Indian defense cleared. Spain followed with another good move between Borja Ladalle and Gerard Clares in the 25th minute. As usual veteran of many such battles, Sreejesh stood his ground well and prevented Spain from consolidating its lead. Indian goal had another providential escape in the 28th minute when the attempted shot at the goal hit the goal post and bounced back into play. A penalty corner followed.
Indian team, however, had different plans. Just seconds before the game broke for the interval, India earned a penalty corner. Skipper Harmanpreet had set for himself an onerous task of restoring parity for his team. He made no mistake and put the teams as par.
Harmanpreet continued from where he left in the first half. Three minutes into the second half, after a video referral, India got a penalty corner. This time again, the Indian skipper was ruthless with his flick to give his team a crucial 2-1 lead. India survived some powerful attacks, including a series of penalty corners in the last three minutes. The defense stood its ground well and did not allow the Spaniards any clear look at its goal.
There was a commotion when India defended two penalty corners in the dying minutes. Sreejesh went down on the field and all players in an emotive gesture sprawled over to him to give him a warm farewell from competitive hockey.