As one of Canada’s boys field hockey coaches at the Nanjing Youth Olympics, Indy Sehmbi kept a few choice words from the teenage athletes.
“We didn’t talk about medals. We didn’t mention the word win until after the final,” he said. “It was pretty calculated among the coaches.”
Vikram Sandhu, a 2013 John Oliver secondary graduate now studying at Langara, scored clutch goals for Canada and remembers the atypical direction the team took towards its win.
“We never said, ‘Hey were going to go out there and beat this team.’ We said we were going to play our best hockey that we’re capable of and that will make us the best field hockey players in the future,” said Sandhu, 18. “This is a step for the future.”
Ranked second in the 10-team U18 tournament at the Summer Youth Olympics, held in China from August 16 to 28, Canada was well prepared to play a pared-down, five-on-five version of the field sport that is tactically like basketball and physically like ball hockey. In field hockey fives (as it’s known like rugby sevens) the pitch is roughly half the size and is enclosed by low boards, otherwise the game is played similarly to the 11-a-side sport despite feeling like a radically different game for athletes.
The coaching staff spent hours with the athletes discussing goals, process and the big picture, said Sehmbi. “We didn’t talk about medals being won or lost. At the end of the tour, we wanted [the athletes] to be on their way to being the best field hockey players in the world. What do you have to do daily for that to happen? The results took care of themselves.”
Canada won silver, losing 3-2 to the top-ranked Australians in a shootout.
“We beat the African champions, the Asian champions and then in the semi-final we beat the Spanish, the European champions and the best team in the tournament who were undefeated,” said Sehmbi, the athletic director at Hamber secondary.
In the group stage, Spain defeated Canada but in the semi-final on Aug. 25, Canada eliminated the Spaniards 6-5 in a shootout after also knocking Pakistan out of the quarterfinals in a shootout. Trailing 3-1 near the end of the second period, Sandhu scored Canada’s key second goal against Spain on a free shot to come within one and swing momentum in their favour.
“I scored with one second left in the second period,” he said. “It changed the game completely otherwise we were going into the last period down two goals. Everyone was down at that moment [before the goal] because, emotionally, we thought we were out of the game.”
Against No. 1 Australia, Canada dropped behind but Sandhu tied the game at 1-1. Australia went ahead 3-1 on a penalty before Canada’s Amrit Sidhu answered with two goals to force the overtime shootout, which Australia won to clinch gold.
Sandhu, who also netted two goals in the shootout, said he’ll never forget what came from the team’s dedication and hard work at the tournament following a six-week centralized training camp at UBC.
“The highlight was being on the podium,” he said.
The U18 national field hockey team is the first in Canadian history to win a medal at the Olympic Games. In 1984 the women's team finished fifth at the Los Angeles Games.
