After a month long preparation camp, India Junior Men and Women Teams are gearing up for the most awaited junior hockey tournament – Volvo International U-21 Tournament 2015, where the best junior teams of the world will be seen clashing against each other.
The upcoming tournament for the Junior Men team will provide a platform to the team to gauge itself basis its performance and accordingly work on the team work and come back stronger for the Men’s Junior Asia Cup 2015 and the FIH Junior World Cup 2016 (Men) 2016. For the Junior Women team, the Volvo U-21 tournament will again be a testing stage ahead of the 7th Junior Women Asia Cup, scheduled for 5-13 September 2015 at Changzhou, China.
The India Junior Men team will be the centre of attention in the Volvo Invitational Tournament 2015 as they are the two-time Sultan of Johor Cup champions and the youngsters have to their credit defeating top teams such as Australia, Great Britain and arch-rival Pakistan in the 2014 edition in Malaysia. The team repeated a similar feat during the Australian Series in Brisbane in December 2014, where they again outplayed Australia and New Zealand.
The Rani Rampal-led Junior Women team will face the challenge of Germany, England, New Zealand, China and host The Netherlands in the tournament aiming for a positive result from the tournament. The Junior Team gained reasonable experience during their New Zealand Tour in 2014 where the team drew three matches, lost two and won one against the host team.
Junior Men Team Captain Harjeet Singh stated, “This is a very important tournament for us as we will play against the best European teams. It will be a good learning session for us and a testing arena where we will get an opportunity to experiment our strategies. We, along with Coach Harendra Singh and coaching staff, have been working for this tournament. The entire team is excited and is confident of making a positive start. We are well prepared and confident to win the tournament.”
Women’s Team skipper Rani Rampal said, “The tournament is an important platform for us as we will face the World’s best hockey teams and the experience earned here will help us in the upcoming tournaments slated during the year. We understand that the competition is tough but we are well-prepared to give a strong challenge. Our only aim is to implement our strategies on the turf and earn maximum points from the match. The month-long preparation camp has boosted our morale and we are confident to take-on any team in the tournament. We are expecting a good outcome from the tournament.”
The Volvo International U-21 Tournament 2015 will be held in Breda, The Netherlands from 18-26 July 2015. The Junior Men team will play their first match against Germany on 18th July, whereas the Junior Women team will face host team The Netherlands on 19th July 2015.