new delhi a triumphant indian mens hockey team captain manpreet singh on tuesday said prime minister narendra modis pep talk after its semifinal loss against belgium worked wonders and instilled a positive energy to the players which eventually translated into a podium finish after 41 years in the olympicsjust after losing 25 to world champions and eventual olympic gold medallist belgium modi called manpreet and chief coach graham reid and consoled them while also motivating the entire team for the job aheadread alsotokyo olympics full list of cash rewards announced for indian medal winnersits raining cash rewards and promotions for indias tokyo olympics medal winners india signed off the tokyo games with seven medals 1 in athletics 2 in wrestling 1 in weightlifting 1 in hockey 1 in boxing and 1 in badminton with this india also went past the mark of 6 medals which wasand manpreet said those words of encouragement did wonderswhen we lost the semifinal we all were very disappointed then the coach came and said pm wants to talk to you guys and when he spoke he said all of you played well and dont be disappointed just focus on your game and the next match and the entire country is proud of you allit gave us a positive energy and then we had a players meeting we said we have got one more chance and if we return empty handed we will have that regret all our life manpreet told reporters in an open media session after returning from tokyowe said to ourselves that we have 60 minutes in our hands and if we give our best in these 60 minutes we can return home with smiles on our facesthe indian mens hockey team scripted history in the justconcluded tokyo games by winning a medal a bronze after a hiatus of 41 yearsindias last of the eight olympic gold medals came way back in the 1980 moscow gamesthe feeling has been great it was my third olympics and this time as captain my first olympics in 2012 was a disaster because we didnt win any matches but then we improved and won medals in asian games and commonwealth games in 2016 we played well but couldnt clear quarterfinals manpreet saidthe skipper said the covid19 pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for the indian hockey teams as they spent the entire lockdown together at the national camp at the sai centre in bengaluru which according to him helped in creating a strong bonding among the playersthis time the mindset was different because we did a lot of hardwork the time we spent together in bengaluru spent the entire quarantine period inside the campus we were away from everybody so going into the olympics our thought was that we sacrificed a lot and we definitely can win a medal if we give our best he saidit was a young team this time and so the mindset was pretty strong as seniors we shared our experiences