Indians amongst high 5 contenders for medal at Tokyo Olympics: Ex-coach Roelant Oltmans

Former head coach Roelant Oltmans has picked the Indian males’s hockey workforce among the many medal contenders for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in July-August.
In an insightful dialog with ‘Hockey Te Charcha’, a podcast collection initiated by Hockey India forward of the Olympics, Oltmans emphasised that psychological toughness shall be a deciding issue for any workforce to achieve Tokyo.
“For me, India is among the top five contenders to win a medal in Tokyo. The team has shown good consistency in competing with the best teams in the world over the last two years,” he mentioned.
However, Oltmans warned in opposition to unnecessary panicking in strain conditions.
“India has already proven they’ll beat groups like Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands. However, doing it on the Olympics shall be a special matter. The decisive issue if you find yourself making an attempt to win such a event is the mentality of the workforce.
“You cannot panic if you are behind in a game or get overexcited when you are ahead. You have to be in control of each situation,” Oltmans mentioned.
The Dutch coach anticipates that the climate situations in Tokyo shall be one other key issue.
Roelant Oltmans was head coach when India reached the quarterfinals within the 2016 Rio Olympics. (Express Archive)
“In phrases of bodily health all the highest groups on the planet are on the similar stage so no workforce has an apparent benefit, however the climate situations shall be extra beneficial for India as they’re used to that kind of local weather.
“The weather will definitely be harsher for the European teams, and they will have to adjust to it.”
Oltmans was head coach when India reached the quarterfinals within the 2016 Rio Olympics. He believes that the workforce has made headway since then.
“Preparing the workforce to safe a medal within the Tokyo Olympics was at all times the primary goal since I joined as High Performance Director at Hockey India in 2013, after which grew to become Chief Coach of the Men’s Team in 2015.
“India has made progress in that regard with their present standing, and Hockey India has created the situations for this to occur by means of its skilled setup.
“You need a good development plan, but you also need the resources to execute a plan. Hockey India and SAI have played a big part in creating and executing this plan to develop hockey in India,” he added.
India has not received an Olympic medal within the sport since 1980.