Watch: Players in tears after India lose bronze match to Great Britain at Tokyo Olympics

India put up a very spirited fight against Great britain in the bronze medal match at the Tokyo Olympics, but victory went to the other side.

Team India

It was a hard fought match between India and Great Britain for the bronze medal match at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday. Both teams played their best hockey but the win eventually came to Britain’s side.

A video shared by a Twitter user shows how the heartbreak impacted the Indian players.

Britain, who had won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, took a two-goal lead in the second quarter through goals by Elena Rayer and Sarah Robertson.

India, who have never won an Olympic medal in women’s hockey, pulled level after drag-flick specialist Gurjit Kaur scored twice off penalty corners.

They are crying
I'm crying
But you'd made this country so proud that we can't even tell
World's Top 4th Team
It's our Women's Team
Medal nahi aaya lekin छाती चौड़ा हो गया हमारा #womenhockeyindia #CheerForIndia
#GBRvIND #IndiaKaGame #Tokyo2020 #TeamIndia #Hockey pic.twitter.com/fviIMCOi2e

— Mukesh Kumar Singh हर हर महादेव (@JaiHindNamo) August 6, 2021

Britain then conceded another goal that gave India a 3-2 lead going into the break, but kept fighting to turn the tables in the final leg of their Tokyo campaign.

Hollie Pearne-Webb equalised in the 35th minute, while Grace Balsdon scored Britain’s winning goal from a penalty corner in the last quarter.

In their bid to deal with the heat, officials doubled the usual two-minute breaks between quarters to allow players to cool down and rolled out extra one-minute water breaks during the final two quarters of the match.

Prior to this, India's best performance in the Olympics was a fourth place finish in the 1980 Moscow Games. In that edition, there were no semifinals as only six teams competed in a round-robin format with the top two featuring in the final.

(With inputs from Reuters and PTI)