As many as six players from Odisha have been selected by Hockey India in the Indian team, among the 30-member core probable group for the senior men's national coaching camp, on Saturday.
The camp will start at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru from October 4.
The Odia players include Amit Rohidas, Dipsan Tirkey, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Shilanand Lakra, Suman Beck and Ashis Kumar Topno.
After a successful campaign at the Tokyo Olympic Games, where India clinched a historic bronze and ended the 41-year year medal drought, the core group will begin the new Olympic cycle with the intent to improve this performance at Paris 2024.
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The core group called up for the camp includes a mix of young and experienced players.
"The players are coming off a long and well-deserved break. I believe they will be excited to be back in the camp and refocus on our goals for next year. We will be going through our performance in the Olympics both from the perspective of individual performances and as a team," said Chief coach Graham Reid.
"The players must now leave behind the Tokyo success and start afresh ahead of a hectic 2022 season. Experiencing success in the Olympics is great but now I want the players to be mentally and physically ready for a hectic season in 2022 with some very important tournaments, starting from the FIH Hockey Pro League in February. This camp will be more about strength and conditioning and we will look at making a slow start," he added.
National campers:
PR Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Suraj Karkera, Harmanpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Amit Rohidas, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Simranjeet Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Gursahibjit Singh, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Jarmanpreet Singh, Dipsan Tirkey, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Jaskaran Singh, Rajkumar Pal, Gurjant Singh, Sumit, Shilanand Lakra, Suman Beck, Mandeep Mor, Ashis Kumar Topno.