At the 14th Hockey India Senior Females National Championship, Odisha secured a decisive earn in opposition to Chandigarh, solidifying its place at the leading of its pool and guaranteeing a location in the quarterfinals.
Following this remarkable 6-1 victory, head mentor Sujit Lakra supplied insights on the team’s potential clients in their forthcoming clash in opposition to Haryana.
Talking on the team’s tactic in this tournament, Lakra stated, “For us, our emphasis will be on execution. Yes, Haryana is a extremely potent group, and they have a powerful core of Indian Women’s Hockey Crew players, but that does not subject on the match day. Our objective is to adhere to our roles and execute what we have learnt in observe. My information to the players is not to overthink and get pride in representing Odisha.”
Odisha has 3 Indian women’s workforce gamers in the squad – Mariana Kujur, Ajmina Kujur and Jyoti Chhatri.
On their impact, the head mentor opined, “They have a major impact in the crew, not only do they motivate the other gamers, but they carry with them the encounter of large-stress situations. They also have experienced much more publicity to gamers from other states and can aid the staff tactically as nicely.”
Odisha has consistently been a pressure to reckon with at the Senior Women of all ages National Championship. In the previous edition, it completed in fifth put and emerged as Champions in the version in advance of that.
Sujit Lakra attributed the achievements to the substantial effort and hard work that has been poured into nourishing the hockey ecosystem in Odisha, like grassroots initiative and infrastructure that includes 23 coaching centres, sports hostels and the Odisha Naval Tata Hockey Substantial-Overall performance Centre.
“I feel we have fantastic infrastructure in Odisha that enables us to acquire hockey thoroughly. Furthermore, we have numerous grassroots initiatives. This not only serves as a pipeline for talent identification but when a participant reaches the senior set-up, the changeover period is shortened simply because they currently have a particular amount of skill, conditioning, and professionalism. As a coach, it is effortless for us to function with them,” he explained.
Lakra underscored the rising degree of competitors at the Senior Females National Championships and lauded the several actions implemented by Hockey India towards empowering member associations.
“The degree of competitiveness is really superior this year. Each time we come again to the National Championship it gets a lot more competitive. Hockey India has done an fantastic task of marketing the game. For example, last calendar year, Hockey India provided essential taking part in machines such as hockey sticks and hockey balls to every member condition. If you provide repeated competitions and machines, then it is no shock that the sport will mature, and the high-quality will get far better every single year,” Lakra signed off.