Coach Marijne 'excited' to reunite with Indian women's hockey team

Sjoerd Marijne

Harendra Singh and Sjoerd Marijne, who were yesterday reappointed as the Indian men's and women's team coaches respectively by Hockey India, expressed their satisfaction on the new roles assigned to them. "I'm excited to reunite with the women's team and will look to focus building on the good form exhibited by the team in last six months as we look forward to the World Cup 2018," said Marijne.

Harendra added: "It is an honour for me to now manage the Indian men's hockey team. It has been a very satisfying journey with the Indian women's hockey team and I would like to thank Hockey India for entrusting me with the new role as we prepare ourselves for a very important season ahead." Harendra's first assignment with the men's team will be the final edition of the Champions Trophy in Breda, Netherlands, this June.

Slew of events
Harendra, who coached the Indian men's team earlier from 2009 to 2011, was in-charge of the women's team since November last year after Marijne was named as the men's coach, replacing sacked Roelant Oltmans. Marijne's first assignment now with the women's side will be the fifth Women's Asian Champions Trophy in Korea, starting May 13.

Asia Cup win
Under Marijne, the men's team retained the Asia Cup and clinched the bronze medal in the Hockey World League (HWL) Final in late 2017. However, his team finished fourth in the CWG. Experts questioned the changing of players in a crucial year for the Indian team. "We won the Asia Cup with dominant hockey, in the World League we have shown we can beat world class teams and with our New Zealand tour we made another step in our process to win the Asian Games and the World Cup," Marijne said in a statement. "Unfortunately in the CWG we didn't perform the way we expected, but still we had good statistics."

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