Need to get over World Cup disappointment and focus on Olympics: Manpreet

India need to get over the disappointment of a quarterfinal exit from the men's hockey World Cup and focus on the challenge of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, said skipper Manpreet Singh Saturday.

It was a disappointing year for India with the men's team failing to live up to the expectations in all the three big ticket events -- the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the World Cup.

The men's team will now begin the season with the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh, Malaysia in March and will also be preparing for the Olympic Qualifiers.

"It is now important for us to move on from the disappointments of 2018. There are always lessons we learn from every tournament we play regardless of how the result went and this time too, we will meet as a unit when we report for National Camp in February and discuss on the areas that need improvement," he said.

India were expected to defend their Asian Games title and directly qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but they could only manage a bronze in the showpiece event.

With the FIH Series Finals in June to be held in Bhubaneswar's Kalinga Stadium, the team's main focus for the year will be to win an Olympic Qualification.

"The road to 2020 Olympic Games will be challenging and surely the ideal way to qualify would have been winning the Asian Games like we did in 2014. But that should not be a deterrent to our motivation," he said.

"We have a good setup, very talented pool of players with good international experience. We just need to remain focused."
"We had topped the Pool and were very positive going into the Quarter Final against the Netherlands. It was a close match and though personally I am very disappointed we lost in the Quarter Final, I am proud of my team. We gave our best particularly the youngsters who were playing the World Cup for the first time."