HOCKEY: HOPE AND REALITY

Pakistan’s hockey team won the bronze medal at the 2026 Asian Games. Is this satisfactory or unsatisfactory? The answer to this is not straightforward. A medal is always welcome. Pakistan failed to win a medal at the previous two Asian Games. Yet, for a country with an enviable Asian Games record of eight gold medals — compared to India’s five — a bronze hardly represents a return to the top. There is another, more important, way of looking at it. The Asian Games winner earns direct qualification for the 2028 Olympics. Pakistan has missed that opportunity and will now have to negotiate the…