Varinder Singh, Olympic hockey medalist, passes away

Varinder Singh, a former Indian hockey player and one of the top right-half Indian players in the 1970s, passed away on Tuesday morning in Jalandhar.

Singh, aged 75, was a member of the Indian hockey team that won a bronze medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics and was also a part of the teams that won the 1973 World Cup and the 1975 World Cup. Singh was born on May 16, 1947, in the Punjabi town of Dhannowali, not far from Jalandhar.

“Punjab hockey and Indian hockey both suffered significant losses. In the 1970s, Varinder Singh and Krishnamurty Perumal were two of the top right halves in the nation. After retiring, he made sure to stay involved in the game by instructing.

He served as a coach with the Punjab Sports department from 2008 until last year, during which time he coached the hockey team for the Punjab and Sind Bank for more than eight years. Last year, he joined a private academy, according to Avtar Singh, a coach at the Surjit Hockey Academy in Jalandhar.

Singh also participated in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and the Indian hockey team that won the silver medal in the 1974 Asian Games. In 2007, Singh also received the Dhyan Chand lifetime achievement award. “The hockey community will remember Varinder Singh’s accomplishment, Hockey India said in a statement lamenting Singh’s passing.

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