Punjab village proud of hockey player Gurjit Kaur’s stellar performance at Tokyo

Neeraj Bagga & Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Amritsar/Jalandhar, August 6

“Tu jitti hain, haari nahi,” said a proud Satnam Singh while speaking to his daughter Gurjit Kaur on the phone after the Indian women hockey team lost to Great Britain in the bronze medal match and finished fourth at the Tokyo Olympics. “You gave an unforgettable performance. The entire nation is very proud of you,” he said.

Unforgettable moment

Tu jitti hain, haari nahi (You have won, not lost). You gave an unforgettable performance. The entire country is proud of you and other girls of the team. — Satnam Singh, Gurjit’s Father

There will be many Gurjits now

Gurjit’s feat will now inspire many young girls to pick up a hockey stick. There are going to be many Gurjits now. Women hockey is in for a revival. — Parminder Kaur, Gurjit’s College Coach

Later, talking to The Tribune, Satnam Singh, said: “I felt sad to see tears in the eyes of our girls. Had Gurjit not scored goals in the Olympics, we would have felt bad. She, along with other girls, gave her best.”

Though residents of star dragflicker’s Miadia Kalan village in Ajnala tehsil were heartbroken after the team’s defeat, they felt proud of their daughter for making the obscure village famous and hogging the limelight at the international level.

Gurcharan Singh, a village nambardar, said: “If it was goalkeeper Savita who was the protagonist of the team in the first quarter, saving two penalty corners and three goal attempts, it was dragflicker Gurjit Kaur in the second quarter who converted two penalty corners into goals.”

Gurjit’s sister Pardeep Kaur, a coach at Sansarpur, said: “I am proud of my sister. She has worked very hard to make it up to here. The girls played their hearts out and gave us a perfect display of quality hockey”.

Parminder Kaur, who coached her at Lyallpur Khalsa College, Jalandhar, said, “Gurjit’s feat will now inspire many young girls to pick up a hockey stick. There are going to be many Gurjits now. Women hockey is in for a revival with Gurjit at the centre of it.”

Meanwhile, Congress leader Dilraj Singh Sarkaria today inaugurated a stadium named after Gurjit Kaur in the village.

(With inputs from Aparna Banerji)