Oi – Were you Watching?

“Oi” appropriately is an exclamation, rather than a word to attract someone’s attention, and the Oi Hockey Stadium certainly managed to attract people’s attention at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

After a few minor hiccups in the lead up to the tournament where the Japanese penchant for punctuality was lost on the visiting teams and buses were missed, the sport could not have wished for a better competition and thrilling performances from its athletes.

What made the performance of the athletes all the more incredible were the conditions under which they were asked to perform. With a few days to go before the end of the Tokyo Olympic Games they had recorded the third highest average temperature at an Olympic Games at 32.3 behind the highest Athens which recorded an average of 34.2 and Rio which was 33.2. The humidity was however the killer, high humidity not only makes temperatures feel hotter but also hinders the body’s ability to cool down. It had a huge impact on athletes in many events at these Olympic Games.

“When you take into account not only the temperature, but also humidity, I would say that a Tokyo Summer is the worst in the history of Olympics,” Makoto Yokohari, the professor of environment and urban planning at the University of Tokyo, told CNN.

Which raises a pertinent question should the Olympic Games be held at this time of year to suit the Northern Hemisphere’s television stations? In 1964 the Games were hosted by Tokyo in October, because it was thought to be a better month temperature-wise for the athletes. This may sound trite but as we saw in the Tennis it does raise serious questions.

World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev appeared to be struggling during his third round men’s singles match against Fabio Fognini of Italy. The Chair umpire in that match Carlos Ramos was heard to ask Medvedev if he could continue playing, and the player’s response was: “I’m a fighter, I will finish the match, but I can die,” he said. “If I die, is the ITF (International Tennis Federation) going to take (sic) responsible?”

This hopefully gives some context to the conditions that the Hockey players were playing under.

The teams that went through to the medal matches played were asked to play 8 games in 13 days in the Mens competition and the women 8 games in 14 days. By comparison in the football competition teams in the medal matches played six games in 17 days! They had two days break between matches even though their games are not a patch on the intensity of the hockey matches. Maybe if we are to have quarter finals at the Olympic Games, Hockey like football the tournament must start a few days before the opening ceremony.

The quarter finals were to some controversially added to the Olympic Games Tournament in Rio in 2016. The reason given by many was to enhance the chances of a resurgent India medalling, which would ultimately help the FIH financially, as their commercial focus in terms of sponsorship has been almost soley towards India.

While that may have been the motivation it would be grossly unfair to put the Indian Men’s success in winning a bronze medal and breaking a 41-year medal drought down to the competition format.

What is interesting is to look at two of the teams that were successful in Tokyo and their journey since the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In the FIH World rankings in 2008 Belgium were ranked 10th and India 11th.

Gold medallists Belgium had not qualified for an Olympic Games since 1976 when they qualified for Beijing. in 2008 India failed to qualify for an Olympic Games for the first time ever. Belgium won one game and drew one game in their pool, and went out in the group stage and finished ninth.

India managed to qualify for London in 2012, but it was a far from happy return to the Olympic Games. They failed to win a game. Belgium however climbed to fifth place.

However both put in place plans to improve, although very different plans.

The first for Belgium was to qualify again for an Olympic Games. Then they set about implementing development programmes that addressed not just the players across all age groups, but also the coaches. Experts were brought in from overseas to not just train players, but to educate and share information with the coaches as well. The aim being to ensure sustained development in the short team and long into the future. Ironically the coach of the Australian side that they beat in the Gold medal match in Tokyo played a key part in that development. Colin Batch was head coach from 2010-2012 and gave many of the Gold medal winning Tokyo side their international debuts.

Qualifying for Beijing was a big step forward for Belgian hockey, but they were not satisfied with qualification, the goal was to win a Gold Medal. While the team worked hard to develop and improve together and build on that success even more work was being done to develop players to come through behind that group. Some of those players played in Tokyo.

Following the failure to qualify for Beijing there was a civil war in Indian Hockey which saw the old Indian Hockey Federation suspended and then not recognised by the FIH and Hockey India emerge. Under the autocratic power of the now FIH President Dr Narinder Batra, India made great strides in a short space of time. They were helped greatly by the FIH and Star Sports. The television deal signed between Star Sports and the FIH meaning that one major tournament would be played in India each year, hosting those tournaments enabled India to gain World Ranking points that saw them steadily climb into the Top ten and keep climbing.

For India, post London the launched the Hockey India League, which brought the best of the best to India to play alongside their top players and their up and coming players. Star Sports took this to the world. It was a success visually because they hired some of the best in the game to produce it and innovate with the coverage. Suddenly hockey was not being broadcast the way that football was. It was a unique experience for the viewer and they were able to get up close to the players. Games played in packed stadia helped promote the spectacle and the excitement. There are few better sights than a happy singing and dancing Indian crowd. Not only were the best players and the best television producers employed but so too some of the best coaches in the world came to India to coach the teams. Many had Indian coaches work alongside them in the hope that they could pool ideas hopefully develop the skills of the Indian coaches.

One area that needed attention, was that the young players were not given things to work on between competitions, and often the coaches when they returned had to go back over the same ground. There is no doubt whatsoever that the young players benefitted greatly from the experience and the exposure playing with the best in the world. One important factor was that they lost the fear of playing against the top teams.

This played a part in the Indian team winning the Junior World Cup in 2016, their second Junior World title. It was a title that they won against Belgium, who were playing in their first ever medal game at this event. Come the 2020 Olympic Games seven players from that victorious Indian side won a bronze in Tokyo and four from the Belgian side that won silver claimed Gold.

While Belgium has had stability in its coaching ranks, the same cannot be said of India, however one feels that while Graham Reid and his coaching team take the plaudits this has been a journey for the players and the team, and they and their game has evolved with each change in coach to reach the podium in Tokyo.

Australian Michael Nobbs steered India back to the Olympic Games in London after the watershed moment of not qualifying in 2008. Fellow Australian Terry Walsh took over and steered India to Gold at the Asian Games and qualified for the Rio Olympic Games. This was India’s first victory at the Asian Games for 16 years and was again a key moment in the team’s evolution.

Walsh resigned at the end of 2014 and the High Performance Coach, Dutchman Roelant Oltmans took over and led the team in Rio. In 2017 Hockey India and Oltmans went their seperate ways, but another Dutchman took over the reins. Sjoerd Marijne moved across from the Women’s team and was replaced by Junior World Cup Wining coach Harendra Singh. However it was not long before the two would switch roles, and Marijne would move back to the women’s team, which would prove one of the shrewdest moves on the coaching carousel.

Harendra Singh became the first Indian to be appointed full time as the men’s team head coach since 2008. Despite a silver medal in the Champions Trophy when India lost in a shoot out against Australia having dominated the match, his failure to win the Asian Games Gold was deemed unacceptable and he too left the role in January 2019. High Performance Director David John took over the interim role with Australia Chris Ciriello who had been Harendra’s assistant. The two led India to yet another final, the Sultan Azlan Shat Cup final, where yet again they lost in a shoot out, this time to Korea. In April 2019 Australian coach Graham Reid was appointed head coach.

Then came the Covid pandemic. Ciriello resigned from his position in September 2020 following John, who despite having just signed a contract extension resigned in August 2020.

There can be no doubt that despite the high turnover of coaches each has played their part in India making the podium in 2021. Some having had important tournament victories that built that belief amongst the group and others suffering the pain of defeat in the final, but in a shoot out.

Two of the unsung heroes in the background are Robin Arkell the Strength & conditioning coach since 2017 and Wayne Lombard who was Lead Scientific Advisor and worked closely with the Women’s team. Their contributions cannot be undervalued as they helped the players fulfil their potential, by preparing them physically for the competition.

It is interesting to note the comment made by the then Belgian captain Thomas Briels in 2018 when they lifted the World Cup in India, “I guess like they say, one has to lose a final to win one.” He was of course referring to the Olympic Final in Rio where Belgium lost to Argentina.

Huge credit must be given to Shane McLeod and his coaching team at Belgium, because they have managed to keep the squad focussed on their ultimate goal, Olympic Gold. After the World Cup victory The top scorer in Tokyo who was also the equal top scorer at the World Cup, Alexander Hendrickx said, “We have to keep our momentum going. Many tournaments are coming up. Of course, looking ahead, we will enter each field not as underdogs anymore. We are the world champions, and in two years time, we will be ready to go one rung up at the Olympic Games.” They had to wait an extra year, but they did just that.

India is understandably happy to be back on the Olympic podium and so they should be, in fact world hockey is happy about that; now all we need is to see Pakistan turn things around the way India has. Yet despite India’s success there is a nagging thought amongst some who are old enough to remember the Indian style of play from yesteryear. At what cost has this success come? The Indian team played a similar style of hockey to so many of the international teams. Gone was the running game for which they became famous. The close skills were still there, but not the mazy dribbles of days gone by. Maybe that is the price one has to pay to attain success in the game today, maybe the rules today do not allow the opportunity to play in this style, whatever the reason one cannot help feeling the game is the poorer if that is the case.

Pakistan were not in Tokyo. Neither were they in Rio. This is again a tragedy for the sport. As mentioned previously something has to be done to help Pakistan hockey back on the road to recovery. India need their arch rivals to be competitive, and the sport itself needs that rivalry just as Cricket needs the Ashes.

Just as Pakistan need help so too do South Africa. At these games one could say that they were possibly one of the most exciting teams in the Men’s tournament. They scored some spectacular goals from wonderful team play and showed just how much potential they have if they can be supported properly and given the right opportunities. Hopefully the powers that be in South Africa will recognise that and never again do what they did in 2016 which was opt not to send the team even though they had qualified. This team showed what the future could hold with the right support. If the FIH want the game to be truly global they need to help hockey in Africa on the back of this performance, and have a plan over a period of time to grow the game, and audit those milestones to make sure that the planned progress is happening.

In the Women’s competition it was again a wonderful tournament to watch. While the top four ranked teams all made the semi finals in the men’s tournament only two of the top four ranked teams made the semi finals in the women’s competition.

Despite finishing second in their pool to the Netherlands second ranked Germany bowed out in the quarter finals to fourth ranked Argentina who had finished third in their pool. While third ranked Australia, who topped their pool went down to 12th ranked India in their quarter final.

Argentina would go on and meet the Netherlands in the Gold medal match, and take home silver. To many they played the tournament format to their advantage. They did not go hard in their pool games and did enough to qualify for the knockout stage. Then they appeared to lift their game to another level. If this was the case it was clever tournament play in tough conditions. Certainly they were looking to make up for missing the semi finals in Rio, the first time since 1996.

The Dutch still are the benchmark in Women’s hockey. They have made the semi finals in every Olympic Games since 1996. They have won three of the last four gold medals and played in the last five Olympic Games Finals.

The two talking points were the form of Great Britain and India. Very few gave the Great Britain Women’s team a hope of medalling in Tokyo based on their performances over a disrupted past two years. Yet they unified as a group and worked hard as a team to battle their way through to the semi finals, again aided by the heroics of Maddie Hinch. Unfortunately the defence of their gold medal came to an emphatic end at the hands of the team they vanquished in Rio, the Netherlands.

India under Sjoerd Marijne have been a joy to watch. If one goes back to his predecessor Neil Hawgood, the Indian Eves were at that time a larvae. They were young, they were enthusiastic, but one had no idea what they would become, more importantly neither did they. Marijne connected with the group in a very special way and over a period of time. The larvae emerged as a caterpillar and the team started to make hesitate and then sure steps in the world. They began to feel comfortable in their surroundings. Surroundings that at home in India were sometimes far from easy.

At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta you felt their wings beginning to appear, the wings of a rare and beautiful butterfly. They claimed silver losing to Japan. At the Commonwealth Games they missed out on a medal losing the bronze medal play off to England, whom they had beaten in their pool match.

Come Tokyo they were now a team with belief and they played like it. Their bronze medal match will haunt this writer for the rest of his life. It was a remarkable game. India after being 1-0 down were suddenly 2-1 up. Great Britain fought back to 2-2 and India again took the lead. Then in the second half the experience and sheer guts of Great Britain saw them pull level again and snatch the lead and the bronze medal.

At the final whistle the Indian players collapsed to the ground inconsolable. They had spent every bit of physical and emotional energy. Their hearts were truly broken. When one hears the stories of these girls and sacrifices they and their families have made to even play the game, let alone make an Olympic games one can empathise. Whereas they may have felt that they had failed all those who had supported them, the truth was they had shone a light for women in India and Indian womens hockey that had never been shone quite as brightly before. One wonders whether that pain that was clear for all to see would have been eased had there been crowds in Tokyo? For just as a crowd can buoy a team or an athlete to victory they can also embrace the bravery and effort of a vanquished opponent.

Huge credit must go to the Great Britain team, who soon realised that the Indian women’s reaction to their loss was greater than anything that they had witnessed in their young lives. They put their personal celebrations on hold and showed great compassion trying to console and help up their opponents. Their moment of victory forgotten as the welfare of their fellow hockey players became their focus. Just as watching it will never leave my mind I am sure that none of those players will ever forget it either. It was a truly selfless act by Great Britain and they should take a bow at a time when so much emphasis is placed on winning. It was a remarkable show of sportsmanship and what sport is all about. Despite the sadness of the Indian players reactions the positive to be taken from those scenes was equally as memorable.

The Games are over and for the Southern hemisphere they have every right to be pretty chuffed as the three teams that medalled in the men’s competition were all coached by coaches that hail from Oceania, and Australia took home silver. In the women’s competition again all three of the coaches to medal came from the southern hemisphere, two from Australia and one from Argentina.

Looking back It was a truly magnificent event in very difficult conditions. What a shame the magnificent Oi stadium could not have been full and fans have been there to cheer on the players. Yes, there are issues that need to be looked at such as if quarter finals are here to stay does the competition need to be longer if played in such conditions, but at the end of the day the players and coaches delivered an event that promoted the sport in the best light possible and you cannot ask for more than that.

Looking ahead who will follow the lead of Belgium and put in place a long term plan? Can India sustain their success and claim the World Cup next year as hosts, or even Gold in Paris in three years? What about the Indian Women, how much further can they go? Certainly it will be interesting to see where many of the teams go from here as coaches move on and players retire. That is what makes sport so interesting.