Craig Fulton targets Asian Games gold as India finalise preparations in Japan
India's men's hockey team and head coach Craig Fulton are in Japan to defend their Asian Games 2026 title, with the tournament's hockey competition scheduled to start on September 18, 2026.
After finishing eighth at the recent FIH Hockey World Cup, the Harmanpreet Singh-led side have set their sights on regrouping in Japan, defending their Asian Games crown and pursuing direct qualification for the LA 2028 Olympics. India are putting the finishing touches to their preparations ahead of the tournament and Fulton has outlined the squad's mindset and approach for the challenge ahead.
Fulton described the team's arrival and bonding camp near Mount Fuji, saying: "We didn’t have much time between the World Cup and the Asian Games, but we are really excited to get going again. I think starting it with a difficult but very, very enlightening experience where you go to a different part of the world (Mount Fuji), where we’ve not all been together before and experience something like that, it just helps the guys really focus on the team and not just the individual pursuit. That’s exactly what we’re trying to improve and enhance."
On using the World Cup as a catalyst for change, Fulton said: "Well, you see, the bottom line is that we’re very, very privileged to do what we do, and it’s gratitude for having this opportunity. (Regarding) what happened during the World Cup, we have identified what we need to focus on more coming into this tournament (Asian Games). We’re able to go straight into it and focus on those improvements and then do it as a team. Raj (Kumar Pal) comes in, Addy (Aditya Arjun Lalage) goes out, and here we are starting a new tournament on Sunday. We obviously had much higher ambitions than finishing 8th at the FIH World Cup."
Addressing how the team will move on from the World Cup, Fulton added: "These are lessons, and the only way to treat them as lessons learned is to turn that learning into action. That’s what we’ve got to do now. We’ve discussed everything, gone through everything and highlighted areas needing improvement. At the same time, it’s now about action after all the training we’re doing as we line up for our first game on Sunday."
Responding to questions about the perceived one-sided nature of pool matches and tournament tempo, Fulton said: "All respect to whoever we play. The only way to truly respect the opposition is by giving 100%. That’s what we’ve done, and that’s what we’ll continue to do in all the tournaments. So, you can expect the same, for sure." He also framed this edition of the Asian Games as a different context from 2023 and outlined the team's immediate objective: "I think it’s very different. It’s still the Asian Games, but it’s just a totally different context because we had the Asian Champions Trophy in India before we played the last Asian Games (in 2023). So, we had played all those Asian teams before we played the Asian Games. Now we’ve played the World Cup before the Asian Games. But it doesn’t really change anything. We take it one game at a time, and we’ve got all our focus on ourselves, not really worrying about anyone else. We want to try to top our pool, and that is our first goal."
India enter the tournament as the reigning Asian Games champions from 2022, and Fulton has been in charge of the men's team since 2023; their first match of this campaign is scheduled against Indonesia on Sunday.