Hamlin said Mortensen and Terdiman knew after last weekends World Cup opener, where they finished fourth in the sprint race and sixth in the doubles, they were sliding well enough to compet

Poor Fabrice Von Bockrijcke. The Belgian had the last touch of the 2016 Junior Hockey World Cup. His drag flick was perhaps the most inconsequential of the tournament too. 2-0 the scorecard read on the two electronic screens on either end of the pitch at the Dhyan Chand Stadium in Lucknow.The 20,000 spectators who had crammed standing into the arena built to hold far less were already shieking. The members of the Indian team who didnt have to put on the plastic face guards were already linking arms. A large tricolour had already been procured. The team had probably brought their own, though they could have had their pick from the hundred being waved furiously in the stands.The tall Belgian shot high into the net. 2-1 the giant screen now read. Near the halfway line, Armaan Qureshi sank to his knees and pressed his sweaty forehead on to the plastic grass. Fifteen years after an Indian team had won the junior hockey World Cup, another set of youngsters had replicated the feat.Here are a few takeaways from Sunday nights performance:Moving upThe 2001 team included Arjun Halappa, Viren Rasquinha, Gagan Ajit Singh and Jugraj Singh, who would graduate to become fixtures in the senior team. Who is to say Armaan, Parvinder Singh, captain Harjeet Singh and Harmanpreet Singh wont go on to do the same as they held the big gold trophy - now a bit jaded with age -- and jumped ecstatically to exploding fireworks. Harjeet surely believes it. This isnt the end for this team. We are going to be winning a lot more in the future too, he said afterwards.Improved fitness, steady growthIn hindsight, it might be said that anything less than gold would have been an underperformance by this team. Roughly this same group had been together for the past two and a half years. I told them back then that they would win the world cup gold, coach Harendra Singh said. Progress was constant. They had returned with a silver at the 2015 Sultan of Johor tournament and won gold earlier this year at the Four Nations tournament by beating Germany (who would be bronze medalists at the Junior World Cup).They had ironed out the kinks that had bedeviled teams of the past. Under trainer, and now high performance director David John, the team was scarcely recognizable from the lot who would struggle to last the duration of the contest. You got a clue of the strictness of their regime from goalkeeper Krishan Pathaks answer to how they would celebrate the win.We are going to eat a lot. We havent eaten for two years! That improved fitness saw them running nine kilometers or more in Lucknow. Not sedate jogs mind you. These kilometers were hard sprints that saw them pressing hard in both the semifinals against Australia and the finals against Belgium, ready to counter. Opponents were worn down by the sheer relentlessness of it.Belgium crowded out Belgium, who had been so methodical in their structure throughout the tournament, were undone in a manner the scoreline does very little to represent. Perhaps a word for the crowd here too. If the Belgians seemingly hit a wall, it was one of sound. The chaos didnt help up but we pride ourselves on our ability to handle chaos. Our boys didnt handle the crowd too well at the start, said the Belgian coach Jeroen Baart.It was very difficult to communicate. We were indicating with our arms which press we were going to play, our strikers were whistling to be heard, exclaimed captain Victor Wegnez. The noise evoked a feeling of dread - think the theme music of Jaws. Everytime we heard the crowd cheering, we knew India were on the attack, Wegnez remarked.Perfect hockeyThe crowd was cheering almost throughout the first half. The usually grim-faced chief coach, Roelant Oltmans, would grin and say it was the closest he had seen to perfect hockey. The high press early on earned two penalty corners both unconverted - if there is one quibble from this tournament, that has to be it. The Belgians tried to flood the Indians in their half and the latter found paths through it. They found ways over it too.Varun Kumar, simply lofted the ball over the heads of a suddenly wobbly defence. Gurjant Singh collected, turned and reverse flicked off a near zero angle. Even Belgiums Loic van Doren - the goalkeeper of the tournament - was helpless. Two other near chances were obtained but Nilkanta Sharma shot wide from point blank and both Mandeep Singh and Parvinder failed to get a deflection into an open goalmouth.Even as Belgium tried to recover, Simranjeet Singh stole a ball, then received it back and reverse hit it low to van Dorens right. The attack was flowing-the ball being smoothly passed around from one stick to another at a high tempo with minimal dribbling. There was a period of play nearly two minutes long beginning at around the 27th minute of the match when the ball didnt make contact with a single stick in the hands of a red shirted player.Road for the futureIndia took their foot off the pedal in the second half, but it almost never seemed Belgium had a chance to get back in the game. The referee too seemed to get caught up in how one sided it was - twice failing in quick succession to see a rare Belgian run catch the foot of two Indian defenders. It probably wouldnt have made much difference.And as coach Harendra Singh said - the last time we won it was with six goals. This time it was with two. But the trophy we won is the same. Its hard to say what the victory will mean for Indian hockey. A junior World Cup doesnt necessarily carry over to senior success.While the junior team of 2001 transferred almost en masse to the seniors, they never enjoyed anywhere near the same success. The road ahead for the batch of 2016 is a long one. Harjeet says this team will be looking to make squads for the 2018 Commonwealth and Asian Games and perhaps even the 2020 Olympics. And at least the Junior World Cup is a good starting point. Thats certainly what his teammate Simranjeet believes. The whole world knows that Indian hockey is on the right track, he said. Cheap Authentic Jordan 12 . -- Jaye Marie Green shot a 4-under 68 on Thursday to increase her lead to five strokes after the second round of the LPGA Tours qualifying tournament. Cheap Air Jordan 12 . Deulofeu injured a muscle in his right leg in Evertons 4-1 win over Fulham in the English Premier League on Saturday. Barcelona says that its team doctors will "co-ordinate" with Evertons medical staff as Deulofeu recovers. http://www.clearanceairjordan12.com/ . According the Toronto Star, a knee injury will keep Sundin out of the lineup, which includes former teammates Gary Roberts, Darcy Tucker, Tie Domi and Curtis Joseph. Jordans From China Real . Ivanovic was leading 7-5, 1-0 when Hantuchova withdrew after falling 0-40 behind in the second game. The match started slowly for Ivanovic, who surrendered her first two serves as Hantuchova took a 5-3 lead. Cheap Jordans 12 Retro . The incident occurred at 19:56 of the second period of the Kings 4-2 road win over Edmonton on Sunday. Nolan punched Oilers forward Jesse Joensuu in the jaw in front of the Kings goal during a scrum. LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Tucker West and his sled were too heavy last week.This week, they were too good.West won his second career World Cup luge gold medal Friday, edging Russias Semen Pavlichenko by the smallest margin of victory on the circuit in nearly four years. West finished two runs on his home Mount Van Hoevenberg track in 1 minute, 43.088 seconds -- a mere 0.006 seconds faster than Pavlichenko, who was in position to win until the very last curve of the competition.Luckily, I showed up today, West said.His win was part of a big day for USA Luge. Earlier Friday, Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken of Germany won the doubles race, narrowly beating Matt Mortensen and Jayson Terdiman -- the first Americans doubles sled to medal in a World Cup since 2010.Put another way, Germany went five days without winning a World Cup doubles medal. The U.S. went six years without one.Its been a long journey, for sure, Terdiman said.It was a long week for West, who was in second place at the midpoint of last weekends season opener in Winterberg when he was disqualified for being overweight.He more than atoned for that Friday, adding this gold to the one he won at Lake Placid in 2014.It was disappointing last week, sitting in second and having that taken away from you by a technicality, West said. Obviously, thats going to be disappointing. But I saw the speed was there and I was looking forward to this week, being on home ice and in front of friends and family. I was angry, I was determined to do better and I was hungry to do it.Wolfgang Kindl of Austria was third, 0.094 seconds behind West. Chris Mazdzer of the U.S. took fourth.In the doubles race, Eggert and Benecken finished their two runs in 1:28.382. Mortensen aand Terdiman took the silver in 1:28.dddddddddddd.545, and Robin Johannes Geueke and David Gamm of Germany were third in 1:28.726.Eggert and Benecken are now 3-for-3 this season, having swept the doubles season-openers at Winterberg last weekend.The last U.S. World Cup doubles medal was a bronze for Terdiman and Christian Niccum on Dec. 4, 2010. American doubles teams had not reached the podium in 60 World Cup races since, including sprint competitions.This one will taste better, I think, Terdiman said.The Americans didnt even have to wait to see the scoreboard at the finish line. From the roar of the crowd as they made their way out of the final turn, they knew a medal was theirs.Im really hoping this is the stepping stone for a brighter future, Mortensen said. This shows we can get in there. This was part of our four-year plan, to get a medal this season, and now weve done it early and this is fantastic.U.S. womens luge star Erin Hamlin said Mortensen and Terdiman knew after last weekends World Cup opener, where they finished fourth in the sprint race and sixth in the doubles, they were sliding well enough to compete.Coming to home ice apparently was the final piece of the puzzle.This years been really good for them, Hamlin said. Theyve had really solid training. I think theyre finally at a point where theyre pretty comfortable on their sled, really enjoying sliding and feeling good about sliding. So I think its exciting to see.The World Cup resumes Saturday with the womens race and team relay. USA Luge swept the podium in the womens race at Mount Van Hoevenberg last year. ' ' '