Hockey Olympic Qualifiers: Hockey Itinerant Sergio Vigil Happy As Chile Beat Czech To Remain In Hunt

Hockey Itinerant Sergio Vigil: Argentina's Sergio Vigil is a field hockey itinerant, spending 25 days a month in Chile and five in his native country.

A former Argentina international player, Vigil coached the Argentina women's team to the silver medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and coached Las Leonas to gold medals at the 2002 Women's Hockey World Cup, 2001 Champions Trophy and the 1999 Pan American Games.

The 56-year-old is in Ranchi for the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers here as the chief coach of Chile, hoping to take his adopted country to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris later this year. Vigil had guided the Las Diblas to the historic representation in the 2022 World Cup in South Africa.

Vigil, who has also coached the Argentina men's hockey team, said the profile of field hockey is rising in Chile following the recent success of both the men's and women's national teams.

"Chile is a football country, football is very important for them. When Marcelo Bielsa was coach of the men's national football team, Chile won two American Cups. Also in Chile, tennis is very popular, as is volleyball, athletics and basketball. Hockey is a very humble sport there. But the interest is increasing and now we have more players playing it," Vigil told IANS after the match on Sunday.

The Argentine coach has played a small role in popularising the sport in the country.

"I live 25 days a month in Chile and five days in Argentina with my family. Now the Diablas are my family," he said.

Vigil said Sunday's match against the Czech Republic was very important for his team as it set up a direct shoot-out with Japan and winning that match would take them into the semifinals and move further closer to a dream berth in the Olympics.

"Yes, this was the most important game for us because we will play our final league game against Japan. We will play a powerful team in two days and it will be our best opportunity to fulfil the dream for which we have prepared a lot," he said.

"In two days, we play for a place in the semifinals, we play for making history," said the Argentine coach said.