Indian women’s hockey team midfielder Neha Goyal was a pivotal part of India’s campaign at the Tokyo Olympics. The Indian Eves qualified for the Tokyo Olympics semifinals but missed out on an Olympics medal after narrowly losing out to Great Britain in the Bronze medal match. Goyal, who was part of the historic journey in Tokyo feels that there are plenty of positives for her from the Summer Games.
“Our performance at the Tokyo Olympics has changed our mentality and given us the self-belief to compete with any team in the world. Our win over Australia in the Quarter Final brought about a shift in our mentality. Coming into that match, Australia had topped their Pool by winning all their matches. Defeating them gave us a lot of confidence, which we will carry with us going forward as we prepare to play more important tournaments in the future. Along with a change in our mentality, we have improved our training and fitness levels as well,” said the 24-year-old midfielder from Sonepat.
The Tokyo Olympics was her debut in the Summer Games and she feels that it was a landmark highlight in her young career. However, she admitted, “I was nervous before the occasion, but very excited. It has always been my dream to play in the Olympics since I started playing hockey. This was my first time, so I did not take too much pressure upon myself and tried to enjoy the moment. I also gained some confidence in our tours of Argentina and Germany before the Olympics, where I felt that we were able to compete well with some really good teams. In the end, the team performed well, and I was happy with my individual performance over the course of the tournament as well.”
Neha Goyal was very important to this Indian Women’s hockey team at the Tokyo Olympics. But the 24-year-old admits that they cannot rest on their laurels and work hard to win the gold medal at the Asian Games followed by the World Cup.
“As a team, our next target is to do well at the Asian Games and the World Cup next year. I am continuing to work on my own game so I can continue to contribute to the team’s fortunes. As a Centre, my job is to be effective on both ends of the field by helping out the defence, as well as the attack. I feel I am a skilful player, and attacking comes more naturally to me, but I want to maintain a balance in my game,” she concluded.
