Coach didn’t have lunch with us when we lost an Olympics match: hockey goalkeeper Savita Punia revealed coach Angry

India women’s hockey goalkeeper Savita Punia on Tuesday revealed that head coach Sjoerd Marijne got angry with the side after their performance against Great Britain in the group-stage encounter of the recently-concluded Tokyo Olympics. He didn’t have lunch with us when we lost to Great Britain in group stage,” she added.

Also Read:Karnataka Lockdown after 15 days: CM Basavaraj Bommai said to take strict restriction

“That’s when we decided to repose his faith in us. He kept encouraging us to play our best,” Savita said. “Our first game, we played well but we ended up on the losing side. In our third game against England, we did not perform that well and coach Sjoerd Marijne got angry with us after that. He told us to show some fight and he did not even have lunch with us. He kept on pushing us and he really motivated us.

Also Read: New Covid mutants are very dangerous, can reach anywhere any time, warns Centre

The coach told me that he was aware of how angry he got but it was just to motivate the players. The match against Ireland was important, we gave our best in every game,” Savita told media. Talking about the team’s campaign at the Games, the goalkeeper said: “Our team played really well at the Tokyo Olympics, I got a bit emotional after we missed out on the bronze medal, we missed out on a medal by the whisker.

I was not able to control my emotions as we missed out on a medal by the slightest of margins.” Coach Marijne had his last assignment at the Tokyo Olympics and now he would be stepping down as the coach. “Coach Marijne trusted each player, he helped everyone to gain optimum levels of fitness, he always had high hopes from us and it motivated me. He always kept on believing,” said Savita.