Indian women’s hockey camp starts in Odisha capital

Bhubaneswar, Oct 2:

After a month-long preparatory camp in Delhi, 33 Indian women hockey players are now assembling for a coaching camp at the Kalinga Stadium here in Odisha capital from Friday.

The camp, scheduled to run till October 23, also includes young talents from the junior team, who recently participated in the 7th Junior Asia Cup and Volvo Invitational Under-21 (Women) Tournament held earlier this year.

As many as 33 players will be part of the coaching camp where they will be trained for 22 days. The 33 campers consist of four goalkeepers, 10 defenders, nine midfielders and 10 forwards.

The players will work on their skills and team coordination for the upcoming tournaments that are scheduled in the next one year and the all important Rio 2016 Olympics.

“With the team all set to face the challenge of Rio de Janeiro next year, Hockey India is ensuring that the players have all that is required to be ready for the tournament and be a tough team for the opponents,” chief coach Mathias Ahrens said in a statement.

“Keeping this in mind we are arranging regular preparatory camps alongwith plans to line-up Test series with different international teams in the next 8 months which will help the players to better themselves as a unit.”

The list of players:

Goalkeepers: Savita, Yogita Bali, Rajani Etimarpu, Sonal Minj

Defenders: Manjit Kaur, Sunita Lakra, Deepika, Susila Chanu Pukhrmbam, Jaspreet Kaur, Namita Toppo, Deep Grace Ekka, Gurjit Kaur, H. Lalruwatfeli, Rukmani Dodray

Midfielders: M. Lily Chanu, Renuka Yadav, Ritu Rani, Lilima Minz, Navjot Kaur, Monika, Narinder Kaur, Lalhlunmawii, Navdeep Kaur

Forwards: Navneet Kaur, Rani Rampal, Poonam Rani, Vandana Kataria, Anupa Barla, Anuradha Devi Thokchom, Ritusha Kumari Arya, Punam Barla, Nikki Pradhan, Jyoti Gupta. (IANS)