'Focus on Olympics qualification': Indian women's hockey coach Janneke Schopman

Gearing up for the upcoming Paris Olympic qualifiers in Ranchi, Janneke Schopman on Thursday admitted that the Hangzhou Asian Games were a missed opportunity for the Indian women's team to seal a Paris Games berth.

The Indian team was comprehensively defeated by China in the semi-finals of the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. The top three teams out of eight competing in the January 13-19 tournament will qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

"We did not qualify for the Olympics from the Asian Games and we know it was a missed opportunity. But we don't dwell on the past," Schopman said at the pre-tournament press conference.

"We are hoping to do well in this tournament. We need to be better (than before) and if we play to our best, we can qualify for the Olympics (from here)," said Janneke.

India, who are placed in Pool B, begin their campaign against the USA on Saturday, before facing New Zealand (January 14) and Italy (January 16). The knockout matches will be held on January 18 and 19 respectively.

Penalty Corner is a big concern, working on solution

Despite winning the Asian Champions Trophy here, India had wasted plenty of penalty corners in the subsequent tournaments, including in the Asian Games, and Schopman had marked it as an area that needs improvement.

Former Indian men's team drag-flick expert Rupinder Pal Singh had a short stint will the women's side to fix the penalty-corner conversion woes, and Schopman said the players had benefited from it.

"Rupinder has the expertise as he is an experienced player. He knows the pressure on the top of 'D'. It was a great help for the likes of Gurjit Kaur and Deepika to fine-tune their skills. I am very happy with that." Captain Savita Punia said her side would look to play attacking hockey.

"Our strength is attacking though we are also good at defending. We will do just that in upcoming matches," she said.

Another big concern for India will be the absence of experienced goal scorer Vandana Katariya who is missing the tournament due to a cheekbone injury. Baljeet Kaur has replaced the experienced forward.