Indian Women's Hockey Team coach gets verified, gains over 30k followers on social media in a day

Ranked a lowly ninth in the world, the Indian women defeated world number 2, Australia, to make their way into the Semi final of the Olympics for the first time ever. More than that, it was redemption after their winless campaign at Rio de Janeiro, where they finished at the last position five years back.

Further, yesterday was the first time that the Indian women's hockey team defeated Australia in any major tournament. So, the win was quite certainly historic in more ways than one.

The performance by the Indians yesterday helped a rather obscure figure in Indian sports rise to fame – the Indian women's hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne.

The Dutchman first took over the women's team in 2017 before switching to the men's team and joining the women back in 2018. Under the guidance of Marijne, Indian women's hockey has quite certainly reached heights never scaled before.

This led to Marijne becoming a social media sensation. Netizens on Twitter started demanding Dronacharya Award for the 47-year-old just minutes after India's historic win.

Later Marijne tweeted a selfie from the team bus, which further helped him in gaining the attention of Indian fans.

Now, just over a day after India's win against Australia, Sjoerd Marijne has gathered more than 30,000 followers on his personal Twitter handle. Besides, he has also got the blue tick and has been officially verified by the social media giant in less than a day.

Marijne currently has about 36,300 followers on his Twitter handle.