The Indian Women’s Junior Hockey team witnessed a disappointing end to their campaign in the FIH Hockey’s Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile, where the team failed to qualify for the quarter-finals. The team ended at the third position in Pool C. The team was placed with Belgium, Canada and Germany.
Group Stage results
The team started their campaign with a flier, winning 12-0 against Canada in their first game. However, they couldn’t keep up in the later games, losing to Germany by 3-4 and 2-3 in a well-fought game against Belgium. In the game against Belgium, India made a comeback and levelled the lead by 2 goals by Belgium in the fourth quarter. But a penalty shot in the very next minute helped Belgium secure the game.
India’s upcoming games
Yesterday, Indian women played a tough game against New Zealand, winning in the penalty shoot-out by 3-2 after a 3-3 result at the end of the game. Indian women will now play the game for ranking 9-12 game against Korea.
Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup
On the other side of the world, the Indian Junior Men’s team started their World Cup campaign in Malaysia, against Korea with a 4-2 win, with the courtesy of Hundal Araijeet Singh’s hattrick. They will play their second game against Spain tomorrow, and later against Canada on Saturday.
India at Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup
India has won the Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup twice, in 2001 and 2016. The team lost the semi-finals in the previous edition in 2021 against the six-time world champions Germany and ended up in fourth position after losing to France in the third-position game.