Graham Reid, head coach of the Indian men’s hockey team, reveals he wears a pacemaker. Given the last few pulsating moments of the bronze medal match against Germany, there would have been anxiety for his family watching in Australia.

But it all ended well. India held on and Sreejesh’s left glove warded off danger from a penalty corner with 6.8 seconds left on the clock.

“It was stressful at the end,” he said. “But I was confident we would do it.”

Reid explained that running down the clock was tricky. “From the outside, you could say you should do this and not that and that you should hold on to the ball …you could practice all you want but it’s what you do at that moment that counts,” he said.

Asked about his thoughts when India fell 1-3 behind, Reid said, “It’s never over till it’s over. You saw with the girls last night and how they fought to the end.”

Reid said it was hard for the team who were literally “stuck” at the SAI complex in Bengaluru for long long months. “Fifteen months felt like 15 years but the players have endured it and worked towards where there have reached today,” Reid said.

As to what the medal symbolizes, Reid said: “Hopefully we have done our little bit to start a revival for the game in India.

“It also represents the hard work we’ve put in,” Reid added.

“It also stands for faith in ourselves. We worked with the mindset that helped us when things didn’t go our way.

“We talked about it before the match that we could reach such a point and what we needed to do to take things to another level. It very much happened today and we took it in our stride and the players focussed on their game and stuck to our structure.

“We certainly believed we could come back,” he said.