When you mention hockey in Finland, the familiar images that pop up in one’s mind are ice, puck, twig and a big crowd getting behind the players rushing across the ice rink. But if you are an Indian living in this northern European nation, hockey brings back memories of the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, where the mercurial Balbir Singh Sr scored five goals in the final — still a world record — to take India to another gold medal. India hammered The Netherlands 6-1 in the summit clash to finish on top of the Olympic podium.

Currently, at the same velodrome, where the hockey event of the 1952 Olympic Games was played, Finland’s little-known hockey team is training for the EuroHockey Championship III (EHC) tournament. Among the typical ash blond Finnish heads doing all their drills ever so sincerely under coaches Elliot Steedman and Attila Farkas are two players who have created history.

In a first, two teenagers of Indian origin — striker Arjunjit Singh, 16, and midfielder Parampreet Singh, 19 — have been picked for Finland’s senior men’s hockey team that will be seen competing at the EHC III tournament to be held in Kirklareli, Turkey, from July 28 to August 2.