The Indian men’s hockey team clinched a second successive bronze medal in the Olympic Games – a fitting farewell for veteran India custodian PR Sreejesh, nicknamed ‘The Great Indian Wall of Indian hockey’, who drew curtains on his illustrious 18-year-old career with this match.
Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh (30th, 33rd minute) scored a brace, while Spain’s only goal was scored by captain Marc Miralles in the 18th minute from a penalty stroke. India defeated Spain 2-1 in the third-position playoff match in Paris on Thursday.
He will be bowing out as arguably the best-ever goalkeeper India has produced.
Ahead of his final match, Sreejesh had described his international career as ‘nothing short of extraordinary’ and expressed his gratitude to the countrymen for believing in him.
Having made his debut at the 2010 World Cup, Sreejesh has been part of various memorable wins for India, which includes Gold in 2014 Asian Games, Bronze medal in Jakarta-Palembang, joint winning team of the Asian Champions Trophy in 2018, Gold medal winning team of 2019 FIH Men’s Series Finals in Bhubaneswar and Silver medal winning team at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The 36-year-old goalie was one of the main architects of India’s historic Bronze medal win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. He was instrumental in India’s third-place finish at the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021/22.
Sreejesh was awarded the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in 2021 and is only the second sportsperson from India to win the award of World Games Athlete of the Year 2021. He has also won back-to-back FIH Goalkeeper of the Year awards in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Last year, he stood tall in India’s Gold medal-winning campaign at the Asian Games that sealed the team’s berth for Paris 2024.
On Thursday, as the final hooter rang out at the stadium, PR Sreejesh sank to his knees as the Indian players ran to their legendary keeper to celebrate a career that goes beyond the sport – India’s own and the World’s best.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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