The Indian women’s hockey players have been told to not indulge in their favourite spicy dishes and sweets as part of a strict diet aimed at maximising their chances of qualifying for Tokyo Olympics. High on confidence after its title win in FIH Series Finals in Hiroshima last month, the women’s team is practising hard for the final Olympics qualifier, to be held in November.

Captain Rani Rampal saidclaims that this is the fittest Indian team in a long time and praised scientific adviser, Wayne Lombard, for this change. “I can say that this is the fittest Indian women’s hockey team I have ever seen. Wayne has been working very hard on each individual and the team. We all are following his diet plans and the results are for everyone to see. He says that if we want to do well on field, we have to take healthy diet,” Rani said.“We have stopped eating sweets, chocolates, spicy and oily food. We are taking low carbs and a balanced diet and feeling better,” she said.

They do cheat but not on regular basis. “I was craving for rajma chawal made by my mother when we came back from Japan. He allows us to cheat on our diet plan once in a while but not on regular basis,” she said.

India’s best performance in Olympics came at the 1980 Moscow Games when they finished fourth. That was also the Olympics debut for women’s hockey. The team then had to wait for 36 years to qualify for the Olympics and finished 12th in Rio in 2016. “Rio was a learning experience for us. We could not perform at that level but learnt a lot.