Hockey coach Baldev Singh to be honoured with Padma Shri
NEW DELHI, May 20: Baldev Singh, who turned the quaint town of Shahabad Markanda on NH44 into a conveyor belt for elite hockey talent, will be conferred the country’s prestigious civilian honour — Padma Shri — by President Droupadi Murmu on May 25, officials said on Wednesday.The 75-year-old Singh arrived in Shahabad Markanda in 1982 as a coach with the Haryana Sports Department and served there for four years. He returned to the town in 1993, turning the hockey nursery into one of “the most productive centres for hockey talent”, they said.Beginning his professional career with the Namdhari Hockey team, Bhaini Sahib, and armed with a diploma in hockey coaching from the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Bengaluru, in the early eighties, Singh used his experience in mentoring over 80 international players and eight Indian captains in the sport.With the academy becoming a provincial engine for the sport, Singh occupied pivotal roles within hockey’s competitive apparatus, serving as chief coach and selector of the junior men’s team in 1993, assistant coach of the Indian side that won the Champions Trophy in Madras in 1996, and later chief coach of the senior national team.From 2001 to 2004, he served as coach of the Indian men’s team, including at the Champions Trophy held at Amstelveen, Netherlands, and guided the team to a gold medal at the Asia Cup in 2004, they said.For more than four decades, Singh has operated far from the glare typically reserved for star athletes, shaping the institutional scaffolding of Indian hockey contributing as hockey coach at Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib, Khalsa College, Amritsar, core member of the Olympic Task Force constituted by the Centre to prepare a road map for 2020 Tokyo, 2024, Paris and 2028 Los Angles Olympic Games. (PTI)
Dhairya Gogia shocks Tse Chun in Asian Junior squash
PANZHIHUA (China), May 20: India’s Dhairya Gogia on Wednesday shocked Hong Kong’s 5/8 seed Tse Ka Chun in the first round of the boys’ U-13 section at the 33rd Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships in Panzhihua, China, on Wednesday.Gogia recorded a 12-10, 10-12, 11-7, 11-7 win over Chun in the boys’ singles.Gogia’s effort underlined Indians’ dominant performances across age-groups on the opening day of the four-day competition.Results (Indians, 1st round):U-13: Boys: 3/4-Amarya Bajaj bt Chau Hyo Chon (Mac) 11-1, 11-1, 11-5; 3/4-Abhyuday Arora bt Danuja Jayasinghe (SL) 11-5, 11-4, 11-1; Dhairya Gogia bt 5/8-Tse Ka Chun (HK) 12-10, 10-12, 11-7, 11-7.Girls: Riyaa Dalal bt Dheerya Mithali Silva (SL) 11-0, 11-6, 11-7; 5/8-Alia Kankaria bt Eun Choi (Kor) 11-4, 11-6, 11-5. (PTI)
Indian U-19 men’s team to tour Sri Lanka for ODIs and Tests
COLOMBO, May 20: The Indian men’s U19 team will tour Sri Lanka in July 2026 for a bilateral series comprising three one‑day matches and two four‑day games. The India U19 men’s squad will arrive in Sri Lanka on June 30, with the tour beginning on July 4 with the first 50-over game to be played at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium (MRICS) in Hambantota. It is followed by the second and third games at the same venue on July 6 and 9, respectively.The longer format contests will then take centre stage, with the first four‑day game scheduled to be played from July 13‑16 at the Galle. The second four‑day match will be played from July 20‑23 in Colombo. (IANS)
