Balbir Singh: The biggest hockey player played a big role in winning gold for the country in three consecutive Olympics.

New -delhi, October 9 (IANS). The history of Indian hockey was golden. There was a time when the Indian hockey team was the most powerful team in the world. The proof of this is the Olympics, where the Indian hockey team won gold medals in a row. Balbir Singh’s name is very important among the players who shone during the golden era of the national hockey team and made the country in the world famous. Balbir Singh was born on October 10, 1924 in Haripur, Punjab. He is also known as Balbir Singh Sr. When he was five years old, he started playing hockey. When he saw at the age of 12 that the Indian hockey team won his third Olympic gold medal in 1936, he also had a desire to play hockey for the country. This desire and passion brought him to the national team. He started playing hockey as a goalkeeper and then started playing in the back four, but for the first time he got a true idea of ​​his skills when he got a chance to play in the local tournament as a striker. Punjab’s hockey team did not win a national medal for 14 years. Balbir Singh Sr. Played an important role in Punjab that won two consecutive national titles in 1946 and 1947. After this show he found a place in the national team. Balbir Singh Sr. Is considered the best center player ever in Indian hockey history. Balbir Singh made a memorable and extraordinary contribution to helping the Indian team to win gold medals in the 1948 Olympics (London Olympics), 1952 (Helinsky Olympics) and 1956 in Melbourne. He was also part of the Indian team that won the silver medal in the Asian Games in 1958. Balbir Singh scored 8 goals in the London Olympics and 9 goals in the Helsinki Olympics. India faced the Netherlands in the final in the Helsinki Olympics. Balbir won the gold medal for India by scoring five goals in the final. This is still the record for most goals a player scored in an Olympic men’s hockey final. India won this match 6-1. He scored a hat-trick against Great Britain in the semi-finals. In 1956, the Indian team won gold by defeating Pakistan. He played with a hand injury in this match. In 1957 he was the first sports person in the country to receive the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civil honor. Balbir Singh retired in 1960. Singh scored 246 goals in 61 games for India. After retirement, he associated as a hockey as coach, manager and appraiser of the hockey team. Balbir Singh Sr. was the coach of the Indian hockey team when the team managed to win the bronze medal in the first World Cup in 1971. After this he became the support of the team for his only World Cup victory in 1975. India won the gold medal by defeating Britain in the London Olympics in 1948. Balbir Singh scored two goals in this final. India won this match 4-0. In 2018, the film ‘Gold’ was made on this incident. Akshay Kumar played the role of Tapan Das in this film. This biggest hockey player of the country died on May 25, 2020. -Anders pack shares these story marks