Kolkata: India lift up the Junior Hockey World Cup after they beat Belgium 2-1 in the final in Lucknow on Sunday.This is the second time they won the trophy after 2001.
Gurjant Singh opened the scoring for the hosts in the 8th minute and Simranjeet Singh extended the lead in the 22nd minute. Gurjant Singh broke the deadlock with a beautiful reverse hit and Simranjeet scored the second goal from a superb field goal from the edge of the circle.
For the Europeans, Fabrice Van Boackaijck scored in the 78th minute but the match was more or less sealed in the favour of the Indians by then. The Indians now join the Germans as being the only nations to win this trophy more than once.
The Indians completely dominated the entire tournament after beating teams like Australia and Spain. They entered the finals as favourites and justified this tag.
However, the Indians could have scored a lot more goals had they capitalised on the three penalties they earned. For the Belgians, they could not find any major goal scoring opportunity other than the 78th minute.
This win of the junior team comes right after the senior team put on a good show at the Rio Olympics and won the Asian Champions Trophy this year. The senior team also finished as the runners-up in the Champions Trophy.
The future of Indian hockey seems to be in safe hands.