Ranchi: Italy women’s hockey team reached Ranchi on Thursday with the intention of making it to the Olympics for the first time. The Italy team will make its debut in the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers 2024 against New Zealand on January 13 under the leadership of Federica Carta and Sara Puglisi.
Captain Sara Puglisi expressed her excitement about the upcoming tournament and talked openly about the team’s preparations for the upcoming matches. He said that we have made joint preparations for a few months. We have done a lot of work – we have come here and we will finish our final steps training this week and then we will start the tournament together. This is quite exciting.
The Italian skipper expressed confidence in his team’s abilities. She said that we know that this competition will be tough. But everything is open and nothing is impossible. Italy women’s hockey team head coach Andres Mondo supported his team.
Despite lack of experience, he said that no team should take him lightly. We are a very new and young team and you can see that we are using different formations. Currently our number is 19 in rank. But the quality of our team, our players, we don’t feel like we are number 19.
On coming to Ranchi, everyone was traditionally given a grand welcome. All the players were seen dancing on Nagpuri song. Representatives of Hockey India and Hockey Jharkhand were present on this occasion.
Italy is ranked 19th in the FIH world rankings. They are in Pool B in the competition. New Zealand will play its first match in the competition, its second match against America on January 14 and its final pool match against India on January 16.