70th day of Surjit Hockey Camp : No dearth of hockey talent in Punjab but only through such camps the hidden talent in children can be exposed – Olympian Surinder Singh Sodhi
Jalandhar, December 2 (wishavwarta):- There is no dearth of hockey talent in Punjab but only through such camps the hidden talent in children can be exposed.
On the completion of the 70th day of Surjit Hockey Camp, the great Indian hockey olympian Surinder Singh Sodhi, IPS (Retired) was visited the camp as the chief guest. Arjuna Awardee Olympian Surinder Singh Sodhi is gold medalist of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Sodhi is known for playing a major role in helping India’s win a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics after a gap of 16 years, was playing center forward. He remained SSP of Nawanshar & Fadridkot, retired as Inspector General of Police. In the 1980 Moscow Olympics, he socored highest 15 goals and equaled the record set by the great hockey player Udham Singh at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. He also participated in the 1978 (Buenos Aires) and 1982 (Mumbai) World Cups and the 1982 Asian Games (Delhi).
Olympian Surinder Singh Sodhi interacted with the players about hockey and shared his hockey experiences gained during his playing career as well as told them hockey tricks. He said that after a long time, it has been seen that more than 100 players under the age of 14 and 19 have now participating in the 70-day long hockey camp which was started with 5 players. He also expressed his happiness over the fact that about 35 girls are also participating in this camp. He lauded the initiative of Surjit Hockey Society and also appealed to other clubs, sports bodies to start camps for the players under 14 years & under 19 years in their respective villages / cities for gain the lost glory of hockey. He further said that there was no dearth of hockey talent in Punjab but only through such camps & good coaching could bring out the hidden hockey talent in these children. Hockey Coaching Camp run by Surjit Hockey Society, campers have a bright future in the field of Hockey, he added.
According to Surinder Singh Bhapa, Director (Coaching Camp) of Surjit Hockey Coaching Camp informed that on the 70th day of Hockey Coaching Camp today, after reviewing the overall performance of all the participating players during the camp on the basis of recommendations of three members committee of camp’s head coach Olympian Rajinder Singh, coach Davinder Singh and secretary of the society Iqbal Singh Sandhu, Harekum Bir Singh, student of class 7th of MGN Public School and Himakshi, student of Class 7th of Akal Accademy, Dhanal Kalan, Jalandhar dclared “Well Behaved Players” in boys & girls category respectively who were honored by Olympian Surinder Singh Sodhi.
