KARACHI, 28 July 2004 — Pakistan’s 16-member hockey squad for the next month’s Olympic Games along with two young reserves fly out here for the Spanish city of Alcala la Real today where it will compete in a three-nation pre-Olympic warm-up event before landing in Athens for the crunch assignment.
There were no customary promises of a gold medal though the team’s players and officials were brimming with confidence on the eve of their departure for Europe, a trip that will ultimately take them to the Greek capital set to become the center of the world from Aug. 13 to 29. “I can’t make any such promises of bringing home back the gold medal,” said the team’s Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans when asked whether he and his team deliver Pakistan the much-cherished Olympic gold in Athens.
“It will be ridiculous to say that whether Pakistan or any other particular team will win the Olympic title because there are at least eight teams in contention for the gold,” added Oltmans. The Dutch who led Holland to title triumphs in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and the Utrecht World Cup two years later said that one thing he can promise is that his charges will give their level best in Athens. “What we have been trying for the last many months is to make it sure that all our players are at their best, both physically and mentally, in the Olympics. And I must say that they are ready for the Games,” commented Oltmans who took charge of the national team soon after it lost in the Afro-Asian Games final against India last November in the South Indian city of Hyderabad.
Pakistan wound up the last phase of the Olympic training camp in Karachi on Monday with Oltmans deciding to skip the final practice sessions scheduled to take place at the Hockey Club of Pakistan today. However, the team’s assistant coach Tahir Zaman said that the team’s training process was far from over.
“We will continue training for the Games till a day before our opening game against Germany,” said Tahir, a former Pakistan skipper.
Pakistan lost to Olympic pool rivals Germany and Britain as well as defending Olympic champions Holland during last month’s European sojourn but won against Australia, India and Argentina. Soon after returning home, the players assembled for the camp and carried out extensive training sessions in which various combinations in open field play and set pieces were experimented by the team management.
“All of us have been working hard since months and know that the time has come for the team to deliver,” said skipper Muhammad Nadeem ND, one of the six survivors of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Nadeem said that he and his team were aware that the entire nation was expecting them to win in Athens and said that the team would go all out for the coveted Olympic gold last won by Pakistan 20 years back in Los Angeles. Ahmed Alam, one of the team’s most experienced players, said that the greenshirts would have everything to play for. “For years we have all been complaining that our cricketers get much more money, fame and glory than us. I guess now is our time to change that. If we win the Olympics, things will never be the same for us. We would be heroes and all of us would give their 200 percent to achieve that status,” said the team’s goalkeeper who led Pakistan to a fourth place in Sydney.
Pakistan will play against hosts Spain and Argentina in Alcala la Real from July 30 to Aug. 2 and will then proceed to Athens on Aug. 9 after a few days of rest and recreation in Barcelona. In Athens, they would play a warm-up match against New Zealand on Aug. 11 before their tough opening game against world champions Germany on Aug. 15. Spain, Korea, Great Britain and Egypt are the other teams in their group. Holland are bracketed with Australia, India, Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa in the other pool.
