Paris: India ended a 41-year drought of winning medals at the men’s Olympic Games in Tokyo. Now the country faces a bigger challenge: breaking its long drought of winning medals at consecutive Games.

India last won medals in consecutive Olympic Games in 1968 and 1972 — bronze medals in Mexico and Munich. India is the most successful country in Olympic hockey with eight gold medals, six in a row. But those medals came four decades ago and the hockey world has changed a lot since then and winning consecutive medals is not so easy these days.

And India face a huge challenge when they take to the artificial turf of the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium in the 12-team men’s hockey competition. India are drawn in Pool B with reigning champions Belgium, former winners Australia, Argentina and New Zealand, along with Ireland, while Pool A includes the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, hosts France and African champions South Africa.

The first goal for the Indian men is to finish in the top four of the group to qualify for the quarter-finals. After that, the real battle begins. The build-up to India has been quite disappointing, especially the Test series in Australia and the eight Pro League matches in Antwerp and London. India lost most of these matches, resulting in a seventh place out of nine teams in the Pro League.

This has also resulted in India’s ranking dropping from top five to seventh in the world in the FIH Rankings. For the Paris Olympics, the selection committee comprising Dr RP Singh, Balwinder Singh, Mohd Riaz, MM Somaya, Sardar Singh and BP Govinda has put together an experienced team of 11 players who were part of the team that won the bronze medal in Tokyo.

Two of them, goalkeeper PR Sreejesh and Manpreet Singh, who captained the team in Tokyo, are playing their fourth Olympics, while five players — Jarmanpreet Singh, Sanjay, Raj Kumar Pal, Abhishek and Sukhjeet Singh — are making their debuts. With the core of the 16-man squad consisting of 11 players from Tokyo, the team has the experience to help them face the challenges in Paris.

The problem, however, may not be that simple as the team has undergone a transformation under head coach Craig Fulton — the approach has changed from an attacking mentality to a defensive one. India has always believed in attacking through aggressive Asian hockey. Experts believe that the team needs to have a strong defence with everyone from the forwards to the defenders contributing to blocking the opponent’s attack in their own half. But the all-out defensive approach may not go down well with the players whose mentality is to be aggressive. India will begin their campaign against New Zealand in their opening match on July 27.

Apart from this match, the clash with Ireland will be quite crucial, as winning both matches will at least ensure that the teams finish fourth in their groups and qualify for the quarter-finals. In other matches, India will play Argentina on July 29, Ireland the day after, reigning champions Belgium on August 1 and former winners Australia on August 2.

The division is as follows: Pool A: Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, France, South Africa Pool B: Belgium, India, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Ireland.

IANS