India may have won three medals in the Tokyo Olympics so far, but the women's hockey and men's hockey teams have created history. Both the teams have reached the semi-finals and Punjab has a big contribution in reaching here. The youth of Surjeet Hockey Academy and Mithapur village of Jalandhar district have created a ruckus in Tokyo. Due to these players, Indian hockey is going to create history in Tokyo Olympics.
In 1980, 41 years after the gold medal, the Indian men's hockey team ended its Olympic medal drought. India created history by winning the bronze medal after defeating Germany 5-4. There are 9 players in the team that made a splash in the Tokyo Olympics, who took training at Olympian Surjeet Hockey Academy in Jalandhar. Be it Simranjit Singh, who scored two goals in the semi-finals, Hardik Singh with one goal, or Manpreet Singh, the captain who led the team who played hard at the Olympics, all have come out of this academy. Before reaching the senior level, these players continued to train in this academy. The special thing is that 3 players including the hockey team captain belong to the same village of Jalandhar.
After the death of Olympian Surjeet Singh Randhawa, a resident of Jalandhar, Surjeet Hockey Society was first formed in his name in 1984. The hockey stadium at Balturn Park, Jalandhar was named after him. After this, Surjeet Hockey Academy was formed in 1991-92. In which hockey training is given to the children of 12 to 19 years.
Teams like Pakistan, Russia, Bangladesh, Canada, England, Malaysia etc. participate in International level Surjeet Hockey Tournament.
Apart from Manpreet Singh, hockey team captain from Olympian Surjeet Academy, Simranjit Singh, Hardik Singh, Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Shamsher Singh, Mandeep Singh and Krishan Pathak, who went as extra goalkeeper, are included. Gurjit Kaur of Amritsar, who is included in the women's hockey team playing in the Olympics, has also trained in this academy for a few years.
Also read: 'Aloo ka parathas', Olympic logo await 'Men in Blue' in Punjab
Shamsher spent six years in Jalandhar and trained at Surjeet Hockey Academy. He was in Class VII when he came to the city to polish his skills. His father Hardev Singh is a farmer and mother Harpreet Kaur is a housewife. On being asked if he had ever thought that he would make it to the Tokyo Olympics, Shamsher said, “Never, to be very honest. I just wanted to train at the academy in Jalandhar and play for the nation.”