‘Hockey player Udita Duhan has fulfilled her late dad’s dream’

Deepender Deswal
Tribune News Service
Hisar, August 3

Looking up to her late father, a former handball player, Udita Duhan too wanted to join the sport but had to switch to hockey after her coach did not turn up in the ground for three days.

On seeing her late father Jasbir Singh, who was posted as ASI in Hisar, play handball, she got inclined towards sports in her early years. Initially, she started playing handball but later expressed her desire to change the sport to her mother. This switch sealed her fate.

Hailing from Bhiwani’s Nangal village, Udita gave up the ball and picked up the stick and has not looked back since. She was soon picked up by the SAI and her career was fast-tracked as a professional hockey player.

The switch that changed her fate

Seeing her father Jasbir Singh play handball, Udita Duhan got inclined towards sports in her early years. Initially, she started playing handball but later decided to switch to hockey after her coach didn’t show up for the classes for three days in a row. Udita then gave up the ball and picked up the stick and has not looked back since. She has emerged as one of the rising stars of the Indian women hockey team.

After her initial success, she continued performing well and it was only a matter of time before she was selected in the junior hockey team to represent India. However, she suffered a setback when her father died in 2015. Her mother Geeta Devi took reins of the family and encouraged Udita set her eyes for a berth in the Indian team. “She has realised the dream of her father,” says Geeta Devi.