Beauty Dungdung, a part of the Indian Junior Women’s Hockey Team that finished in the fourth position at the Junior World Cup held in South Africa in 2021, said that it was her dream to get selected for the senior side.
Indian Women’s Hockey Team is set to travel to Valencia, Spain, for the FIH Hockey Women’s Nations Cup being held for the first time in 2022. The FIH Women’s Nations Cup is an important fixture in the international calendar as it brings in a system of promotion-relegation, where the Champions will be promoted to the FIH Hockey Women’s Pro League’s 2023-2024 season. India are grouped in pool B along with Canada, Japan and South Africa. The other teams in the fray are Ireland, Italy, Korea and Spain who are grouped in pool A.
Speaking on her selection for the first time in the Indian Senior Women’s Team, Beauty was quoted as saying in a Hockey India press release, “I am really happy about getting my name into the team. I was not expecting this as there are a lot of good players at the training camp. I was really surprised. I am grateful that my hard work is paying off.”
“It was my dream to get selected for the Indian Senior Women’s Hockey Team. So, I am very happy about this,” she added.
Beauty, who hails from Simdega district in Jharkhand, began her hockey journey when she was just around 6-7 years. The school where she was studying required every student to bring their hockey sticks, and hence she used to carry one each day.
“Growing up, I received a lot of support from my family to pursue the sport, especially my father who really encouraged me. I learned a lot about the sport from him. Soon, I started playing hockey from the hostel in our region,” she said.
In 2016, Beauty competed in her first U14 Nationals. The following year, she competed in her first sub-junior national before being invited to compete in the senior district national in 2019. Beauty was selected for the Indian Junior Women’s National Camp the same year.
“My first tour with the Junior Women’s team was in 2019 in Ireland. Then, I travelled to Belarus and Australia in the same year. In 2021, I travelled with the team to Chile. And then this year, I received the opportunity to travel for the FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup South Africa 2021,” she said.