S2H Team

The Junior India women’s team’s tour of Chile produced a forward of great promise. She is Beauty Dung Dung who struck five goals in six matches played in Santiago where the team enjoyed an unbeaten run.

The Jharkhand-born was springboard of India’s attack and she hit the turf running, so to say, with a hat-trick in India’s first match against the Chile junior team in a 5-3 win.

The victory set the tone for the Indian girls who won 4-2 and drew 2-2 in the next two matches against their Chilean counterparts. They then took on the Chile senior women’s team, winning 2-0 and 2-1.

“Since we were playing international matches after more than a year, we really wanted to enjoy playing every match. Last year has been particularly tough on all of us because we were not in the camp for nearly eight months. During the lockdown, we couldn’t practice hockey. Only in September when the MHA guidelines allowed us to resume activities, I could train at the Ekalabya Sports Hostel in Ranchi. When we were called for the camp later that year, we were all very excited and wanted to make the most of it and trained really hard for the Chile tour,” the 17-year-old forward was reported as saying.

Beauty caught the eye and found a place in the junior core group after a splendid showing in the 9^th Hockey India Junior Women’s National Championship (A Division) in 2019. Jharkhand beat Haryana 2-1 in the final and Beauty was summoned to the National camp. She was selected to the Junior women’s squad for the Cantor Fitzgerald U21 International 4-Nations tournament in Ireland followed by a series in Belarus. Beauty was also a part of the squad that took part in a 3- Nation tournament in Australia.

“We have developed a very good understanding amongst each other. The core group is led by Captain Suman who is very encouraging especially for youngsters like me in the team. In our previous camp, we also played a few matches against the Senior India team which helped us prepare well for Chile. Since we are in the same campus as the Senior core group, we watch how they press, the skills they use and set pieces they create. We often tell ourselves, if they can play so well, then why can’t we,” revealed Beauty, who lives in Karangaguri, in Simdega district, Jharkhand.

Beauty enjoyed the encouragement of her family and school principal at Aarti Madhya Vidyalaya in Karangaguri. She took to hockey at a very tender age. Also belonging to the same region, Sangeeta Kumari and Sushma Kumari, are part of the Junior India squad. Beauty now aims to make the team for the Junior Asia Cup scheduled for April this year in Kakamigahara, Japan.

“Doing well in Chile has given me a lot of confidence and scoring five goals there was special for me. I aim next to do well in the National camp, improve my skills and hope to make the team for the Junior Asia Cup where we need to finish in the top three to qualify for the FIH Junior World Cup to be held in December this year in South Africa,” she said.

The Junior women’s core group are taking a break and will regroup at SAI Centre, Bengaluru,  for the National camp starting on February 9.