Sandeep Somesh guns for podium finish in Asian Games

V Narayan Swamy

BANGALORE: Sandeep Somesh set out on Monday for the Asian Games camp in New Delhi with a one-point agenda: a podium finish at Guangzhou.

Having had to weather too many storms ever since he was made the coach in-charge of the women’s hockey team for the World Cup in Rosario in August, Sandeep will step into the short camp knowing full well he would need to goad the team to perform better at the continental Games, not merely to protect or better their bronze medal finish at the Doha Asiad four years back but set the record straight after their uninspiring performance at the Commonwealth Games.

Sandeep wanted to quit after the Delhi Games but after a great deal of thought decided that he would take up the Asian Games as a challenge.

“Yes, at one point of time, I had thought of resigning,” Sandeep told TOI. “But I don’t want to quit as a loser. I want to make amends for the Commonwealth Games show. Asian Games is the right platform for me to prove myself.”

Sandeep maintained that his team had fared reasonably well at the CWG. “We had one bad game against Scotland. Also, there was that mix-up with the number of goals we had to score against South Africa that would have taken us to the semifinals. The fifth place does not really reflect our potential but I thought overall, there were positives which we can take forward.”

Sandeep said the goals set for CWG had been high but achievable. “We had targeted a podium finish. A lot of factors led us to believe that we could do it. Australia hadn’t come in full strength, there were only two other big teams for us to take on, the crowd support etc. But the draw against Scotland did us in.”

The 11-day camp in Delhi, beginning on Tuesday, will give Sandeep little time to work on the deficiencies but the coach has a few ideas up his sleeve. “We need to be quicker in switching the ball from defence to attack. Also, we can be a lot more liberal and swift in our lateral passes while on the attack. We will work on them from tomorrow.”