Indian women's hockey forward Navneet Kaur said clinching the bronze medal at the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham was surreal to her.
The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games was a historic campaign for the Indian Women's Hockey Team which clinched a Bronze medal after a 16-year medal drought at CWG. Now the Indian Women's Hockey Team is solely focused on the future and has already set in place certain practices that will prove vital in helping the team move forward and improve.
Navneet Kaur, who was instrumental in the attack for the Indian Women's Hockey Team's memorable campaign at the quadrennial sporting event, spoke about the team's future ambitions and how she sees herself playing a bigger role in the squad moving forward. The Forward spoke about what made the CWG campaign so special for her, "The Medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022, brought us great joy as a team, even though our team was feeling a little down after the loss in the Semi-Final. It was special to see that everyone in the squad motivated each other to concentrate on the Bronze medal game and you could feel the togetherness of the squad as we got laser-focused for the Bronze medal tie. That moment was really surreal, especially for me." The 26-year-old ace went on to talk about areas she is looking to improve moving forward as a player, "I need to improve on my situational awareness, so that I get better at controlling the ball and in turn get better at controlling the tempo of the game, because then I can play at my pace and choose moments in the game to either slow the tempo down or raise it according to the situation." Navneet also talked about the areas the squad is looking to improve in the coming months, "We are working on improving our team coordination. We are also working on our finishing as a squad so that we are extremely clinical when the chances come our way which was the only area, we lacked in at the World Cup and CWG 2022. As a squad, we have identified these areas and have already started working on improving them so that we are ready before the next tournament comes around." Navneet also spoke about what she expects from the team moving forward while reflecting on their recent performances, "The team's performances have been great recently. Now we are fully focused on the upcoming competitions and I am sure we will perform in the same unrelenting manner. The young players have settled into the team really well and their integration in the squad is going smoothly, the best part of which is that young players are getting so many opportunities in international competitions which will help them improve drastically in very little time, which I feel we should continue doing because it in future proofs helps our young players in the team settle and gain much needed competitive experience at the highest level." "As a senior player now, I look to help the youngsters with everything and anything on and off the field. We talk freely off the field and encourage open discussions and there is no such obligation of 'senior' and 'junior' players." Navneet added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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