Indian men’s hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Amit Rohidas, Abhishek, and six others who had taken part in the Hangzhou Asian Games will be competing for different states in the 13th Hockey India Senior National men’s hockey championship to be held at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here from November 17 to 28.
Moreover, the entire support staff of the National team is expected to be at the championships to monitor the Indian players.
Craig Fulton, India’s head coach, should also arrive in the city in a day or two to watch the young talent.
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Punjab will be the run-away favourite as it has five current Indian players, including Harmanpreet and a host of Internationals.
Defending champion Haryana, too, will fancy its chances as it has talented players like Sumit and Abhishek, who were part of the India squad at the Hangzhou games.
Host Tamil Nadu, last year’s runner-up, has S. Karthi, who played at the Asian Champions Trophy this year and Junior India player Sathish. “We hope to be on the podium as we have trained hard,” said P. Senthil Kumar, Secretary of Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu (HUTN), at a press conference here on Thursday.
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HUTN president and Hockey India treasurer Sekar J Manoharan said: “We are witnessing so many Indian players competing in the Nationals after a long time. This will be one of the selection events [for the Paris Olympics]. We hope to see huge crowds here like what we witnessed at Bhubaneswar during the ACT women’s tournament.”
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