We achieved something bigger than a medal

NEW DELHI: Indian women's hockey coach Sjoerd Marijne told his team to be proud of themselves and embrace the fact of inspiring a whole nation and making the Indians proud.

"Before today's match, I told them to give everything and they showed fighting spirit. I told them after the game, 'Listen, we didn't win the medal but I think we achieved something bigger than a medal and that is inspiring a whole nation and making Indians proud'," said Marijne in a virtual press interaction organized by Hockey India on Friday.

He added, "We all are still emotional at the moment. Losing matches hurt for athletes. It will take time but it is a good thing that they are disappointed and want to do better."

When quizzed about how the Indian team made a turnaround, Marijne said, "After the match against Great Britain in the pool, I was extremely angry with the team. They were throwing their chances. I was so angry that I told them they need to pull up their performance and show their best. I was quite happy with the Netherlands. We did well as they are the best team. We did well against Germany but gave some goals away. But in the pool match against GB, I felt this is really not good enough. We really wanted to play the last two matches in a good way. That really transformed the team to another mindset. The team knows that when I get angry with them, then it is serious."

He further explained, "It took a lot of individual meetings with the girls and found a key for the next match themselves. After the match, I showed them some clips of a movie about being in the moment and what you can and cannot control. That movie really helped the girls with being busy and doing things outside of their control. From the match against Ireland, the turnaround point started to happen and the belief starts working more with the team."

Marijne also revealed that Friday's match was his last game as the Indian team coach. IANS

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