BY NANDAKUMAR MARAR
Gavin Ferreira recalls playing hockey with Leander Paes when the Indian tennis ace, competing in the men’s singles category at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, visited the hockey team in the Village.
1996 Atlanta Olympian Gavin Ferreira
“We could not go to watch Leander’s semifinal against Andre Agassi, nor his bronze medal match (against Brazilian Fernando Meligeni), but remember him coming over to meet up with us. Leander tried to dribble a hockey ball in a fun game with us,” recalled the hockey forward.
“The men’s singles bronze medalist at Atlanta, Leander made every Indian proud by bagging third place,” recalled Ferreira, who flies with Air India as a member of the cabin crew.
The Indian hockey team had left the Village by then and did not wait for the closing ceremony, where Leander was given the honour of carrying the Indian flag as the nation’s Olympic medalist. Pargat
Singh, stalwart in the hockey squad, carried the national flag at the opening ceremony. Agassi and Sergei Bruguera clinched the men’s tennis gold and silver respectively and the hockey-loving Indian stepped on the podium with them to receive the bronze medal (dad Dr Vece Paes wore the India colours at 1972 Munich Games and had returned with a men’s hockey bronze).
Leander Paes, son of hockey Olympic bronze medallist Vace Paes, visited hockey team during the 1996 Olympics
Left-outer Ferreira, who scored twice against Spain (eventual silver medalists behind The Netherlands) and once against South Korea on his first Olympic appearance, recalls a golf buggy ride with Mary Pierce (Canada-born, representing France in women’s tennis at Atlanta).
“The college campus we stayed in was huge and golf buggies were available to move from place to place. Aloysius Edwards and I (hockey teammate and goalkeeper) noticed Mary Pierce getting in, so hopped in again for a second ride, just to be in the cart with her. No photos were possible then.”
Photos: K. Arumugam
Click this link for Darryl D’Souza’s Olympic episode