India's Men and Women's junior hockey team leave for Bangkok

New Delhi: India's Junior Men and Women hockey team on Monday left for the Youth Olympic Qualifiers to be held in Bangkok, Thailand.The Youth Olympics 2018 is to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the five-day hockey tournament is a qualifying tournament for these games. This tournament will be played in Five A side format.

India's nine-member junior men's team is headed by Vivek Sagar Prasad, who was part of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games team. India has been placed in pool A with Korea, Japan, China and Thailand and will begin their campaign against Thailand on April 25.

The junior women's team is headed by Salima Tete. Salima Tete was also part of the team that reached the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games. The Indian women team has Korea, Thailand and Singapore. Women's team will begin their campaign against Thailand on April 25.

Men's team coach Jude Felix and women's team coach Baljeet Singh Saini have expressed the confidence of good performance in the tournament.

"It's good to have players who have gained international exposure with the Senior Team. This team has undergone good preparations and are confident of a good show'', said Baljeet. (UNI)