Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey proclaims money prize for males’s workforce after Asian Games gold medal

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], October 3 (ANI): Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey hailed Team India for his or her double medal within the males’s and ladies’s hockey match, saying that for the lads’s workforce to defend their gold efficiently for the primary time is a improbable achievement and introduced a money award of Rs 11 lakh for the workforce. 

Indian males’s hockey workforce clinched the gold medal on the 2026 Asian Games after defeating Malaysia 5-1 within the ultimate on Saturday, securing back-to-back gold medals on the continental occasion.

This is India’s eighty fifth medal on the Asian Games, together with 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze medals. India additionally certified for the LA Olympics 2028.

India’s males’s hockey workforce created historical past by defending its Asian Games gold medal for the primary time, securing consecutive titles in 2022 and 2026. The triumph additionally marked India’s fifth males’s hockey gold on the Asian Games, following its earlier victories in 1966, 1998, 2014 and 2022.

It was additionally the primary time that each the Indian males’s and ladies’s hockey groups received gold on the similar version of the Asian Games. With this achievement, hockey grew to become solely the third Indian workforce sport, after kabaddi and cricket, to register a double-gold podium end on the continental occasion.

Speaking concerning the win to ANI, Tirkey stated, ‘Team India has received back-to-back Asian Games gold medals. In the final Asian Games, we defeated Japan 5-1, and right now, we beat Malaysia 5-1 within the ultimate. Team India’s efficiency was wonderful. Winning the gold medal once more is a improbable achievement. History has additionally been made right here as a result of, for the primary time in Indian hockey historical past on the Asian Games, each the ladies’s and males’s groups have received gold medals in a single version of the Asian Games.’

He additionally hailed the captains, gamers, teaching and assist employees throughout each groups for doing an ideal job. He additionally felt that Team India’s title conflict in girls’s hockey in opposition to China was higher and so they performed ‘good hockey’. 

‘Our gamers, coaches, assist employees, and captain all did a improbable job. In right now’s match, it seemed like we’d win in opposition to Malaysia. We obtained our aim late however managed to win 5-1. The most vital factor is that we’ll qualify for the Olympics 2028 immediately. Asian Games had been our direct goal. Everyone performed their function rather well throughout each groups. The girls’s workforce performed significantly better. They performed good hockey within the ultimate,’ stated Tirkey. 

‘Hockey India will likely be given Rs 11 lakhs as a money prize for the lads’s workforce. The assist employees will likely be given Rs 5.5 lakhs,’ he added. 

Tirkey additionally thanked the Odisha authorities for his or her assist to Indian hockey over the previous couple of years.

‘The intention has at all times been to develop the game and the gamers, and so they have helped in that. I thank the Odisha authorities for standing with Indian hockey. The central authorities can also be supporting us properly. I want to thank everybody,’ he signed off. 

India’s males’s hockey workforce created historical past by defending its Asian Games gold medal for the primary time, securing consecutive titles in 2022 and 2026. The triumph additionally marked India’s fifth males’s hockey gold on the Asian Games, following its earlier victories in 1966, 1998, 2014 and 2022.

It was additionally the primary time that each the Indian males’s and ladies’s hockey groups received gold on the similar version of the Asian Games. With this achievement, hockey grew to become solely the third Indian workforce sport, after kabaddi and cricket, to register a double-gold podium end on the continental occasion. (ANI)