Ex-Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik felicitates Olympic bronze winning hockey team

Bhubaneswar: Former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday felicitated some members of the Indian men's hockey team that won a second consecutive bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Paris earlier this month.

India came from a goal down to beat Spain 2-1 and win the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics.

Patnaik, whose earlier government had been a key promoter of Indian hockey and had been sponsoring the national men's and women's teams since 2018, hoped for a top podium finish in the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

"Many congratulations from my side to you all. I hope next time you will bring gold," Patnaik said while addressing the players.

The players in attendance were Sumit, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek and Sanjay alongside Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey.

Sumit thanked Patnaik for supporting hockey when the sport needed it the most.

"I would like to thank Naveen Patnaik sir from the bottom of my heart, especially from Hockey India and from the entire team for his immense support towards hockey. There was no sponsor hockey but he came forward and gave such a massive sponsorship for hockey," he said.

Lalit said the former Odisha CM came in as a saviour for the sport.

"First of all I would like to say that Hon'ble Naveen Patnaik sir's role in hockey, is of a hero and the most important thing is that whatever he has done for hockey is unimaginable.

"He held hockey's hand when no one was there. Sir played a very important role in making Odisha the sports capital of India," he said.