Rourkela: Odisha’s four hockey Olympians were given a rousing reception on arrival at their hometown in Sundargarh on Saturday.
Amit Rohidas and Birendra Lakra of the men’s team, and Deep Grace Ekka and Namita Toppo who represented the Indian women at the recent Tokyo Olympics landed at Jharsuguda’s Veer Surendra Sai airport around noon.
Officials of the district administration and sports officials welcomed them warmly for scripting history at Tokyo.
The men’s hockey team advanced to the semifinals, where they lost to Belgium, before conquering Germany to clinch bronze — thus ending a 41-year medal drought. The women’s team upset the mighty Australians to make the semifinals for the first time, but went down in a close contest to Argentina and then Britain in the bronze medal play-off clash.
The Odisha players, who played their part, were taken to Sundargarh town in a special car procession with former India captain and Olympian Dilip Tirkey accompanying them.
On reaching Parijat Park, the players were taken around the city on motorcycles.
En route, the players were also felicitated by several organizations and Sundargarh Public School.
They were then felicitated by the district administration at a special event organized at Bikash Bhawan.
Special arrangements were made by the administration for the four players to travel to their native places following the felicitation.
