As the Indian women’s hockey team played the last of their training games against the Bharat Academy boys — in preparation for the Olympic qualifiers next week — the overseas teams, too, began their build up at the National Stadium here with a practice session.
Canada, ranked 20th in the world, were the first to arrive on Saturday afternoon. Their hour-and-a-half long session began with short passes and concluded with a half-field match.
Canada, like India, have never qualified for the Olympics. Looking at the difficult task ahead, captain Katie Baker said, “We are ranked fourth in the tournament. It will be a big challenge for us to qualify.”
However, she felt the experience of playing in India before will come in handy. “We hosted India in 2010 and last year played in the Commonwealth Games. That should help us a lot.”
She expected veterans like Stephanie Jameson to step up. Stephanie is on the verge of becoming the most capped player for Canada. Her match tally stands at 162. Two more matches would see the 30-year-old defender break the record.
Meanwhile, the Indian side played another short game lasting 40 minutes with the Bharat Academy boys.
Coach C.R. Kumar was happy with the team’s performance.
“We scored from two penalty corners. That is a positive sign. The team have improved a lot and are peaking at the right time.
“It is good to play with the boys team as they play a high-intensity game and are aggressive throughout,” he added. Joydeep and Jaspreet — two of the three drag-flickers — missed training due to shoulder and elbow injuries, respectively, but the coach assured they would be fit soon. “They are carrying niggles and we should have them back in a few days.”
Last to practice were 19th-ranked Italy. Half an hour of their two-hour training was devoted to penalty corners.
The Italian side consists of a number of young players with captain Chiara Tiddi at the center of defense. Italy coach Fernando Ferrara said his team would rely on their strong defense.
“We have had one month of preparation for the event, where we played Argentina and Germany.
“We want to take it match by match. Our defense is our strength and we expect the captain and the goalkeeper to come good,” he said.