Frankly, I am at a loss for words. So many things have jumbled up my mind that I do not know where to start from.

An Olympic medal from Tokyo after being in the wilderness for 41 years, our gold medal-winning feat in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, the unbridled euphoria that the nation has indulged in… It’s making me so emotional.

India players celebrate with their bronze medals on the podium. Getty Images

I am not cooking up any stories here. With the scoreline reading 5-4 in favour of India against Germany in the bronze-medal play-off match on Thursday morning, and the Europeans were attacking in numbers, I thought of switching off the television. When the final whistle was blown, my two daughters, who stay in the US and are now holidaying in Hawaii with their respective families, called me to say ‘India have won. Congratulations.’ I just managed to murmur ‘thank you’.

Ecstatic Team India let out their emotions after the victory over Germany. Getty Images

Sometime around late 2019, friend Ashok Manaktala and myself had planned to travel to Tokyo. I wanted to see the city, relive those memories of 1964 — my only Olympic gold medal — and root for India. As luck would have it, Covid-19 created havoc, the Olympic Games got postponed by a year and we had to shelve our plan.

In the last 41 years, it’s been only stories of disappointments.

First, we could not qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games, then we had the ignominy of finishing last at the London Olympics. All those ghosts have been banished with this 5-4 victory.

Sumit (right) and Mandeep Singh react after the final hooter on Thursday. Getty Images

Now that India have raised the bar, expectations will be high every time the hockey team will take the field. It will be a long road. It’s the beginning of a new journey, a defining moment.

Everyone has had a role to play in this success story.

The players, coach Graham Reid and other members of the support staff, Hockey India, Sports Authority of India and of course the Odisha government, who sponsor the men’s, women’s and junior national teams.

Rupinder Pal Singh celebrates after scoring India’s fourth goal. Getty Images

In this Olympic Games, India have lost to just two teams, Australia and Belgium, the finalists. While Belgium went on to win their maiden gold beating the Aussies 3-2 in a shootout after being tied 1-1 in regulation time, the standard of hockey was nothing compared to what we witnessed in the India versus Germany match.

The bronze-medal match was probably the best of this Olympic Games. India did fantastically well to score four goals after being 1-3 down and held firm when the scoreboard read 5-4.

Simranjeet Singh (17th and 34th minutes) once again proved his mettle. It was also nice to see Hardik Singh (27th), Harmanpreet Singh (29th) and Rupinder Pal Singh (31st) getting their names on the scoresheet.

Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh once again excelled under the bar and justifiably sat on top of the horizontal, celebrating the memorable victory. But let’s not take away any credit from two brave players, Amit Rohidas and Sumit. It takes a lot of courage to take on the bullet-like flicks from penalty corners head-on. They did their job perfectly and that helped Sreejesh.

Progress report

⚫ 2008 Beijing

Did not qualify

⚫ 2012 London

Finished 12th

⚫ 2016 Rio

Finished 8th

⚫ 2020 Tokyo

Bronze medal