Going into the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the women’s hockey team hold unique bragging rights over their male counterparts – being the only Indian hockey team to have won a gold medal at the mega event.
Ever since hockey was introduced at the CWG in 1998, Australia has managed to repeatedly bag the gold in the men’s discipline while the Indian women beat England 3-2 in extra-time to finish on top of the podium in 2002.
Since then though, the women’s hockey team has been through numerous ups and downs with the last-place finish at the Rio Olympics forcing a complete shake-up of the system.
Now, as Rani Rampal leads the team’s challenge in Gold Coast, they go as the reigning Asian Champions having beating China at the Asia Cup final in November.
They also go as part of an incredibly fit and well prepared Indian hockey contingent.
Under Harendra Singh and Sjoerd Marijne, the women’s and men’s teams, respectively, have worked even harder on their fitness. Both teams train in Bangalore at the same centre and share the same facilities.
So, they both have also had time to observe each other’s preparations.
We sat down the captain of the men’s and women’s teams, Manpreet Singh and Rani Rampal, and got them to spill the beans on their preparations for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.
Cameraperson: Shiv Kumar Maurya
Video Editors: Ashish MacCune, Kunal Mehra
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