Asiad success key to World Cup podium dreams: Harendra

Indian men's hockey team coach Harendra Singh is chasing a second successive Asian Games gold not just to secure qualification to the 2020 Olympics, but also kick-start preparations for the year-end World Cup, where he is eyeing a podium.

"In the last couple of years we have proved to the world that India is back on the hockey map. We are number five in the world but by the end of the year we want to be in top 3 in the world," Harendra told PTI during an interview before leaving for Jakarta.

"The Asian Games is the first step towards achieving that goal. We want to have a shot at the podium in 2020 Tokyo and the Asian Games will set the tone for our preparation towards that."
"A gold here will make us the first team to qualify for the 2020 Olympics and we will get one year and 11 months to prepare ourselves."