- Saturday, November 23, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA, who have won record eight gold medals at the Olympic Games but none after 1980, made history on Sunday (1) when they beat Great Britain 3-1 in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Games at the Oi Hockey Stadium.
This is the first time since 1972 that India have made the semi-finals at the Olympic Games. That year, they had lost to arch-rivals Pakistan 0-2 in the last-four game and settled for the bronze. India won the gold at the 1980 Games in Moscow, Russia, but that edition did not have semi-finals and India beat Spain in the gold-medal match that featured the two top teams in the points table.
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Coming back to the Tokyo Games match with Great Britain, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh and Hardik Singh scored a goal each while Samuel Ward scored the only one for Britain, who have a gold in hockey three times.
Dilpreet gave India a lead in the seventh minute into the match when he received a perfect pass from the in-form Simranjeet Singh and found the opponent’s net at close range. Nine minutes later, Gurjant scored after receiving a ball inside the shooting circle and beating British goalkeeper Ollie Payne.
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Ward scored in the 45th minute to keep Britain in the hunt for the equaliser but Hardik scored off a rebound in the 57th minute to seal it for India. The men in blue have now won four games on the trot after their humiliating 1-7 loss to Australia. They beat Spain 3-0, Argentina 3-1 and Japan 5-3. They beat New Zealand in their opening game 3-2.
India will take on Belgium, the silver winners at the Rio Games in the semi-finals on Tuesday (3). Belgium beat Spain 3-1.
The other semi-final will see Australia, who beat the Netherlands 3-0 in the penalty shootout after their game ended 2-2 in regular time, and Germany, who thumped 2016 champions Argentina 3-1.
