The Indian junior women’s hockey team is fired up for the highly anticipated Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, as they eye clinching their maiden title at the multi-nation event.
The Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023, which will be played from 2 June to 11 June, will also serve as the qualifying event for the forthcoming FIH Junior Women’s World Cup 2023. Notably, the top three teams in the Women’s Junior Asia Cup 2023 will earn automatic qualification to the FIH Junior Women’s World Cup 2023, which will be held in Santiago, Chile, from 29 November to 10 December, 2023.
India, which will be captained by Preeti and vice-captained by Deepika, has been grouped in Pool A along with Korea, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, and Chinese Taipei, while hosts Japan, China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Hong Kong, China, will form Pool B of the tournament. The Indian team has won a silver medal and four bronze medals in the tournament’s seven editions thus far. And this time, the Indian Junior Women’s Hockey Team will aim for their first gold medal.
Speaking on the team’s preparation ahead of the tournament, captain Preeti said, “We have worked hard over the past few months for this tournament, and now we are all geared up to implement everything that we have worked on during training sessions. Moreover, the Senior India team was also training with us on the same campus, which helped us up our game and also boosted our confidence.” Meanwhile, India’s Vice Captain Deepika said that the team is excited to play against the best young teams in Asia and is looking to put its best foot forward.