Oltmans unfazed by duel responsibility in Champions Trophy

Discharging duel responsibility in a crucial tournament is not a new thing for Indian hockey's High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans whose primary focus now is to prepare the team as best as he can for the Champions Trophy in the absence of just-retired coach Terry Walsh.
For the second time in his stint with Indian hockey, Oltmans had to double up as a coach and High Performance Director in an important event after Australian Walsh quit from his post recently following the breakdown of his contractual talks with Hockey India and Sports Authority of India.
But the legendary Dutchman was unfazed by the challenge at hand and said he prefers to look forward than ponder about the past.

"I have done that before as well in the 2013 Asia Cup. It's not the most good thing but at this moment we have to look forward and ensure we prepare the team as good as we can for the Champions Trophy. It's an important tournament where 8 best teams of the world will be competing," said Oltmans about his immediate task at hand.
"The morale of the team is good because we clearly know there are distractions in every process. But at this moment we only want to look forward. We are just looking at the Champions Trophy and trying to make sure that we are prepared as good as possible," he told reporters after the team's training session at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here today.

"The boys are training hard, they are eager to learn, they are open for suggestions.

"I know there are high expectations so we have to play accordingly. The boys are really keen to once again produce a fantastic performance in 2014," he added.
Oltmans refused to predict about India's final result in the Champions Trophy but said for him what is important is "performance".
"I never talk about the outcome because its not in our hands. What in our hands is the performance level. I only know is that we need to prepare ourselves to give a good performance," he said.