“This is my family,” said Harmanpreet Singh pointing to the hockey players scurrying around the field during a training session as he spoke sitting on the sideline. Harman spends up to 10 months every year training at the Sports Authority of India facility in Bengaluru and playing tournaments. His daughter, the first child, turned one on June 10 but he celebrated her birthday on June 16.

“I was playing in England with the Indian team that’s why we celebrated her birthday late,” he explained the delayed celebrations. “India comes first. I understand and my family understands it. All this sacrifice and time away from them is for India and for them… they know it well,” said Singh.

Harman, who led the Indian hockey team at the Paris Olympics to a bronze medal, was determined to improve on the Tokyo 2020 feat but his men missed out going down to a late German goal in the semis. “We are not satisfied with the colour of the medal we want to make it brighter… we will go for gold,” he said before leaving for Paris.

Harmanpreet’s men beat Spain 2-1 in the bronze medal game at Stade Yves-du-Manoir on Thursday. After this game, India has faced Spain 11 times in the Olympics and they have won eight times while the European team has won just once with two games drawn. However, overall India and Spain have faced each other 72 times with India triumphant 32 times, Spain with 26 victories and 14 games ended in a draw.

Harman and his men, hurting from wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from the wrestling final on Wednesday, were also driven by the fact that this was former captain and goalie PS Sreejesh’s final game. Harmanpreet, on his part, is grateful that he has got a chance to play for India and despite all the time away from his family and a year-old daughter is happy to be playing for India and leading a team that is united and packed with leaders such as Tokyo Olympics skipper Manpreet Singh and Rio Olympics skipper Sreejesh.

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