Kin of five hockey players honoured
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, June 18
Five youngsters from the district have made it to the Indian men and women hockey squads for the Tokyo Olympics. Hockey lovers hailing this development stated that it revived the memories of a time when the border district used to contribute the maximum number of players in the hockey squad.
Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh and Harmanpreet Singh will be part of the Indian hockey squad to play in the Tokyo Olympics, while Gurjit Kaur will be part of the Indian women hockey team. Family members of all these five hockey players were felicitated by the district administration on Friday.
Hailing from Miadia Kalan village, which falls in Ajnala border subdivision, Gurjit is a drag flicker. She is employed with the Indian Railways and is currently posted in Allahabad.
Her sister Pardeep Kaur, who had been a goalkeeper with the national women team from 2010 to 2016, said, “Our village did not have any hockey ground yet we were attracted towards hockey during our school days at Government Senior Secondary School, Kairon”.
Dilpreet Singh’s father, Balwinder Singh, who had played the nationals from 1990 to 1996, said he was extremely happy that his son realised his dram of donning national colours and to represent the country in Olympics. He informed that Dilpreet participated in Commonwealth Games held at Australia, practice matches in New Zealand, Champions Trophy in Holland, Asian Games at Jakarta, Asian Champions Trophy in Oman, Pro League Match in Argentina and many more.
Dilpreet’s grandfather late Subedar Gurnam Singh was a member of the national athletics team from 1957 to 1964.
Shamsher Singh’s father, Hardev Singh, a farmer by occupation, said he was the first person in the family to play hockey. “I vividly remember he used to watch youngsters play hockey in the village ground and gradually joined them to learn the game”, he said.
Gurjant is a forward in the Indian squad and was part of the Indian team that won the gold at 2016 men’s hockey Junior World Cup in Lucknow. Harmanpreet Singh is a defender in the Indian team. He had participated in the 2016 Summer Olympics and Junior Hockey World Cup 2016.
