Bengaluru, April 5 : From winning the Senior Women National Championship with Hockey Jharkhand to making it into the Senior National camp, it has been a wonderful few weeks for Mahima Tete. The 21-year-old is currently training at SAI, Bengaluru, along with the senior players, including her elder sister and captain Salima Tete.

Talking about the dynamic Mahima shares with Salima in training and her experience, she said, 'I have always wanted to walk in my sister's footsteps and do well for my country. So now that I am also here, training with her, I feel really good. When I do something wrong, she comes to me and guides me to improve. Didi supports me a lot.'

Mahima also said that her sister gave her a lot of important insights before they joined the camp together. 'She told me to work hard and not back out of anything. She told me to give my 100% on the ground. She said in domestic teams, the game is a lot slower, but with senior players I have to play running hockey and be on my toes at all times, so I was mentally prepared heading into training.'

Initially, Mahima was selected in the 65-member core probables group but her impressive work in training and testing earned her a spot in the 40-member list that was announced on April 2. When asked about her experience training with the senior players so far, she replied, 'It's a different combination than I am used to. It's good to practice with the seniors and I am very happy that I am in the senior team right now but I will have to work very hard and improve to get to the level I need to be.'

'In order to compete with international players, we need to be really fit and quick, hence, we are trained very hard in the senior camp,' she added.

Mahima joined the senior camp on the back of an impressive title-winning campaign during the 15th Senior Women National Championship. The midfielder played all five matches for Hockey Jharkhand and played a pivotal role for her side in the tournament.

'At the start of the tournament, we didn't think that we were going to reach the final. But as we progressed, we felt we couldn't afford to lose. We wanted the gold medal because we had never won a medal so we were really determined and we worked really hard for it as a team.'

Hockey Jharkhand defeated defending champions Hockey Haryana 4-3 in the shootout to lift the trophy. Mahima revealed that she was sick on the day of the final.

'I was sick, which is why I didn't participate in the final shootout as well. I drank four bottles of water before and I had prepared myself to play the full game. I wanted to help my team win a gold medal, so I pushed myself hard and gave it my all in the final. Not once did I feel like missing the final match due to my illness,' she said.

While talking about the plan ahead, Mahima stated, 'I need to work really hard in order to play at the level the other senior players play. My goal is to get good enough to make it into the starting line-up.'

/IANS