India may have wonthree medals in the Tokyo Olympics so far, but the women's hockey and men'shockey teams have created history. Both the teams have reached the semi-finalsand Punjab has a big contribution in reaching here. The youth of Surjeet Hockey Academy andMithapur village of Jalandhar district have created a ruckus in Tokyo. Due tothese players, Indian hockey is going to create history in Tokyo Olympics.
In 1980, 41 yearsafter the gold medal, the Indian men's hockey team ended its Olympic medaldrought. India created history by winning the bronze medal after defeatingGermany 5-4. There are 9 players in the team that made a splash in theTokyo Olympics, who took training at Olympian Surjeet Hockey Academy inJalandhar. 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 whoplayed hard at the Olympics, all have come out of this academy. Beforereaching the senior level, these players continued to train in thisacademy. The special thing is that 3 players including the hockey teamcaptain belong to the same village of Jalandhar.
After the death ofOlympian Surjeet Singh Randhawa, a resident of Jalandhar, Surjeet HockeySociety was first formed in his name in 1984. The hockey stadium atBalturn Park, Jalandhar was named after him. After this, Surjeet HockeyAcademy was formed in 1991-92. In which hockey training is given to thechildren of 12 to 19 years.
Teams like Pakistan,Russia, Bangladesh, Canada, England, Malaysia etc. participate in Internationallevel Surjeet Hockey Tournament.
Apart from ManpreetSingh, 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'shockey team playing in the Olympics, has also trained in this academy for a fewyears.
Shamsher spent sixyears in Jalandhar and trained at Surjeet Hockey Academy. He was in Class VIIwhen he came to the city to polish his skills. His father Hardev Singh is afarmer and mother Harpreet Kaur is a housewife. On being asked if he had everthought that he would make it to the Tokyo Olympics, Shamsher said, “Never, tobe very honest. I just wanted to train at the academy in Jalandhar and play forthe nation.”