Olympic Qualifiers: Indian men and women hockey teams qualify for Tokyo

Both Indian men and women on Saturday sealed 2020 Tokyo Olympics berth despite the later losing 1-4 to the US in the second leg of the FIH Qualifier in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

The men, however, thrashed Russia 7-1 in the second leg to take 11-3 aggregate win and qualify for the Olympics. 

Indian women pipped USA 6-5 on aggregate despite losing the second leg. They had thrashed USA 5-1 on Friday but they were given a scare by the USA who raced to a 4-0 lead at the halfway mark. An all-important goal skipper Rani Rampal brought back India into the game. 

Indian women have now qualified for back-to-back Olympics. They had qualified for Rio de Janeiro, after a gap of 36 years. 

As for the men, they booked a berth for Tokyo Olympics after mauling Russia in the second game of the two-legged FIH Qualifiers.

The Indian men had earlier defeated Russia 4-2 in the first-leg on Friday. 

For India, Akashdeep Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh scored two goals each while Lalit Upadhyay, Nilkanta Sharma and Amit Rohidas scored other three goals.