India wants to win Asian Games hockey gold, qualify for Olympics: Harmanpreet Singh

After a disappointing end to the World Cup campaign, Harmanpreet Singh said India will shift its focus to the Asian Games and hope to win gold there. India finished 8th after a shootout with Belgium in the play off at 7-8 India failed to win any of their games against higher ranked opposition during their tournament.

But attention will now shift to next month’s Asian Games where they will hope to defend their crown. India won the Asia Cup convincingly last year. A gold medal win in Japan will enable India to qualify for the 2028 LA Olympics.

After the loss, Harmanpreet said that both India and Belgium did not want to play in the 7-8 match. place, but his team will gain confidence from their performance.

“Both teams didn’t want to play for this position and both were in the same mental state. But to play against the world’s best team in front of their fans and perform well as a team is a big boost,” Harmanpreet said as quoted by PTI.

The Indian captain said he was happy with the Belgium outing and will look to carry the momentum into the Asian Games.

“We kept talking about giving a good performance for the full 60 minutes, which we saw today. We are happy with the performance against Belgium, but not with the eighth place. But this is the road and now the Asian Games is our next target. We want to win the gold medal there and qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics,” he said.

‘WE NEED TO BE STRONGER IN DEFENSE’

India’s backline was under scrutiny as they conceded a total of 19 goals during the tournament, making them the sixth worst defense in the competition.

Harmanpreet said that India will have to improve on this aspect in the upcoming tasks.

“There are no individual goals. If we win, we win as a team, and if we lose, it’s also a collective responsibility. We learned good lessons defensively during the tournament. If we don’t defend well as a team, the big teams will trouble you. We have to be stronger defensively. That’s one area where we’ve been lacking,” he said.

India will begin their Asian Games campaign against Indonesia on September 20.

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Published on:

29 Aug 2026 20:19 IST