Jalandhar, July 6, 2021 (Yes Punjab News)
Sports Minister, Punjab Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi has promised to set-up a Girls Hockey Academy in Jalandhar on the lines of Surjit Hockey Academy for boys at the request of Local Surjit Hockey Society.
Surjit Hockey Societ’s General Secretary Iqbal Singh Sandhu, Joint Secretary Ranbir Singh Rana Tut, Chief PRO Surinder Singh Bhapa and Olympian Baljit Singh Dhillon in a special meeting with Punjab Sports Minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi apprised him of the concern over the sharp decline in the standard of women’s hockey in Punjab.
Punjab who has always been ahead of other states but the sharp decline in the level of women’s hockey is evidenced by the fact that our neighbouring state Haryana has its nine players in Indian women hockey squad participating in Tokyo Olympics where as Punjab has only one n team।
Informing the Sports Minister about the reasons for the decline, Sandhu said that the local Government Senior Girls Secondary School (Nehru Garden) had been running the country’s leading girls hockey training center for almost 40 consecutive years which produced good number of Olympians, and international women players like Nisha Sharma, Harpreet Kaur, Ajinder Kaur, Rajni Sharma, Surjit Bajwa, Sharanjit Kaur, Pritpal Kaur, Rajbir Kaur, besides producing girlsmplayers, Punjab had the honor of winning the highest number of national championships till 2016 and the successfully running this Hockey Center was permanently shut down in 2016 which has been the main reason for the downfall of women’s hockey in Punjab.
On this occasion the Surjit Hockey Society presented a memorandum to the Punjab Sports Minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi to set up a Girls Hockey Academy in Jalandhar on the Same lines of Surjit Hockey Academy for Boys.
Sports Minister Rana Sodhi assured the society that the government would soon set up a Girls hockey academy in Jalandhar to revive the lost status of women’s hockey in Punjab.
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