Lucknow, October 5: As many as two players from Uttar Pradesh, including Olympian Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, have been inducted in the 30-member` core probable group for the Senior Men’s National Coaching Camp, which began at SAI, Bengaluru on Monday.
After a successful campaign at the Tokyo Olympic Games where India clinched a historic bronze medal and ended the 41-yearlong year wait, the Indian men’s core group began the new Olympic cycle with a intent to improve upon this performance at Paris 2024.
Besides Varanasi’s Upadhyay, the other from Uttar Pradesh among the core group is midfielder Rajkumar Pal from Karampur. A trainee at the Sports Authority of India’s Lucknow centre, Pal was too close to make it to the Indian squad for the Tokyo Olympics, but somehow missed the grade.
The core grouped called up for the national coaching camp includes a mix of young and experienced players including PR Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Suraj Karkera, Harmanpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Simranjeet Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gursahibjit Singh, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Jarmanpreet Singh, Dipsan Tirkey, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Jaskaran Singh, Rajkumar Pal, Gurjant Singh, Sumit, Shilanand Lakra, Suman Beck, Mandeep Mor, Ashis Kumar Topno.
Speaking about the camp, chief coach Graham Reid said, “The players are coming off a long and well-deserved break. I believe they will be excited to be back in the National Camp and refocus on our goals for next year. We will be going through our performance in the Olympics both from the perspective of individual performances and as a team,” expressed Reid.
He further emphasized that the players must now leave behind the success of Tokyo and start a fresh ahead of a hectic season in 2022. “Experiencing success in the Olympics is great but now I want the players to be mentally and physically ready for a hectic season in 2022 with some very important tournaments starting from the FIH Hockey Pro League in February. This camp will be more about strength and conditioning and we will look at making a slow start,” he added.
NATIONAL CAMPERS
PR Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Suraj Karkera, Harmanpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Simranjeet Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gursahibjit Singh, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Jarmanpreet Singh, Dipsan Tirkey, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Jaskaran Singh, Rajkumar Pal, Gurjant Singh, Sumit, Shilanand Lakra, Suman Beck, Mandeep Mor and Ashis Kumar Topno.