Singapore’s flexible education system ensured that the exams were postponed as the young hockey players were now getting ready for a different kind of test. But as the team’s coach Solomon Yusef Casoojee says the opportunity to make it to London Games came with a rider. “We were supposed to travel to Australia for a training camp in March but now we can’t. With this trip we have exhausted our funds. We needed to choose between playing the Olympic qualifiers against some really good teams or to take on a state side in Australia. I think we made the right choice,” he said.

Actually, it was an easy decision to make since this happens to be Singapore’s biggest break at international stage. Though, eight players from the side were at 2010 Asian Games, the Olympic qualifers here pose a challenge for the team ranked 41st in the world.

Casoojee is realistic about their targets from this competition. “We will be fine even if we finish fifth, that is our expectation. For us, this is more about the learning process. The experience of playing against bigger teams and working on our tactical areas are the gains we are expecting from this tournament,” he said.

Practice matches

India captain Bharat Chhetri had, earlier in the day, hinted that Singapore would find the going tough in their outings at the National Stadium. “The first two games (against Singapore and Italy) will be our practice matches,” he said. But coach Michael Nobbs was cautious. “We would be focusing on match situations during the evening session under lights. We would be stressing on game situation,” Nobbs said.