15 June 2012: Hockey India today has announced gathering of Olympian gold medallists to honour them on the eve of London Olympics.
This is the third time in Delhi that almost all Olympians medallists will assemble.
They all assembled twice in the past in the mid 90s, when Sahara presented them during the Sahara-Indira Gold Cup in 1995.
Again, they all assembled when Prime Minister Narasimha Rao unveiled the Dhyan Chand Statue, where he also announced Annual Sports Day on Dhyan Chand’s birth anniversary.
Sahara India presented each Olympian, medallist or not, Rs. 1 lac in 1995.
The proposed next week gathering is of course first by a national hockey body and also on the eve of Olympics.
Balbir Singh Sr and Leslie Claudius, who were both part of Indian hockey teams that won gold medals at three successive Olympic Games from 1948, will be among 34 gold medal winners who will be honoured by Hockey India at a function here on June 24.According to Hockey India press release, this is first time in India that so many Olympic gold medalists will be in one place’.
“It is our way of recalling the contribution of these legends to our sport and to the country,” Hockey India Secretary-General Dr. Narinder Batra said.
“The London Games hockey competition will be the first Olympics after the formation of Hockey India and we want to avail the opportunity to celebrate their gold medal winning feats.
“I am sure the presence of the hockey legends will boost the Indian team that will leave for France and Spain to prepare for the competition at the Olympic Games in London. The sight of the gold medals can be most inspirational,” Dr Batra said, indicating that invitations have been sent out to the gold medal winning players.
At 87 years of age, Balbir Singh Sr. is the oldest of the Indian Olympic gold medalists. Keshav Dutt, G Nandy Singh, Jaswant Singh, Raghbir Lal and Col. Haripal Kaushik have been part of two gold medal winning teams.
The list of 34 invitees: Balbir Singh Sr., Keshav Dutt, Leslie Claudius, G Nandy Singh, Jaswant Singh, Raghbir Lal, RS Bhola, Hardayal Singh, Haripal Kaushik, A.S Bakshi, Gurdev Singh (?), Charanjit Singh, Gurbux Singh, Harbinder Singh, Dharam Singh, Balbir Singh, Ali Sayeed, Darshan Singh, V Baskaran, Bir Bahadur Chettri, Allan Schoefield, Sylvanus Dung Dung, Rajinder Singh, Davinder Singh, Gurmail Singh, Ravinder Pal Singh, MM Somaya, Maharaj Krishan Kaushik, Charanjit Kumar, Mervyn Fernandis, Amarjit Singh Rana, Mohammed Shahid, Zafar Iqbal and Surinder Singh Sodhi.