India rejoiced the Indian women’s hockey team’s spot in the semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday.
This is the first time that the women’s hockey team has made it to the semi-finals with a stunning victory of 1-0 against Australia. Savita Punia is one of the key contributors to this historic event. The Australian team couldn’t get past the Indian defence, Punia, even once as she kept on defending when Australia kept pressing and managed to stop 8 penalty corners from Australia.
Punia, who hails from Haryana pursued hockey during her schooling as her district school had hockey as one of its sports. From an early age, she had to do a lot of household chores as her mother was diagnosed with arthritis but her grandfather, Mahender Singh asked her to pursue this sport and achieve something. She had joined the Sports Authority of India to pursue hockey.
Although Punia made it through to the Indian senior National camp in 2007, she made her international debut in 2011 after a wait of almost four years. She made her presence felt in 2013 when the Indian team won bronze at the Asia Cup in hockey. After this, she continued to perform at the 2015 FIH Hockey World League in Belgium and India secured a place for Rio 2016 for the first time in 36 years to the Olympics. She has helped India win the 2016 Asian Champions Trophy, 2017 Asia Cup, and a silver medal at the 2018 Asian Games.
