CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, August 10: Jharkhand’s Nikki Pradhan, Salima Tete and Sangita Kumari returned to Ranchi on Wednesday after having a successful stint with the Indian women’s hockey team that won bronze at the Commonwealth games 2022 held at Birmingham, London.
The star players from Jharkhand were welcomed by the President of Hockey Jharkhand and other officials at the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi along with a number of fans that gathered there.
After a gap of 16 long years, the Indian women’s hockey team won a bronze at the CWG event and the three players from Jharkhand played a crucial role in it. In the bronze medal game against New Zealand, Salima Tete scored the first goal in the second quarter taking the lead to 1-0.
Sangita Kumari, who is from the Karangagudi village in Simdega, battled against all odds to wear the blue jersey and represented the nation in the CWG.
The President of Hockey Jharkhand Bhola Nath Singh said that the three players have made the state proud and it is a big achievement for the sport. This will encourage many more young guns to participate in this sport.
Tete scored three goals for the national team prior to the trip to Birmingham. She scored three more goals at the Commonwealth Games.
Tete, who was raised in Simdega, would play barefoot with a homemade stick on the area’s muddy fields, accidentally building the leg muscles that have made her one of the team’s quickest runners.
She would eventually learn how to regulate that pace and utilize it to her advantage after receiving instruction in the national setup.
