Balbir Singh Kullar, Olympics and Asian Games medallist with the Indian hockey team, has passed away at the age of 77. Known as \u2018Balbir Singh (Punjab)\u2019 to distinguish him from his two namesakes in the India team, Kullar was a member of the Indian team that won gold in the 1966 Asian Games and bronze in the 1968 Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kullar, who hailed from the famous hockey village of Sansarpur in Jalandhar district, made his India debut in 1963 in France. Playing in the forward-line as a right-in, Kullar was part of a relatively young Indian team that won the 1966 Asian Games title in Bangkok. India beat Pakistan 1-0 in the final. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Kullar played in the bronze medal match, which India won 2-1 against West Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kullar, who also served as a national team selector, retired as a Deputy Inspector General in the Punjab Police. He received the Arjuna Award in 1999 and the Padma Shri in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are deeply saddened by the demise of our former hockey player and\u2026 Olympic medallist, Balbir Singh Kullar,\u201d Hockey India said on its official Twitter handle. \u201cOur thoughts and prayers are with Mr Balbir Singh Kullar\u2019s family and friends at this time of grief.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joginder Singh Saini, who groomed some of India\u2019s finest track and field stars right from the 1960s, died on Sunday in Patiala. He was 90. Saini, the chief national athletics coach from the 1970s to 1990s, was not keeping well for the past few days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Balbir Singh Kullar, Olympics and Asian Games medallist with the Indian hockey team, has passed away at the age of 77. Known as \u2018Balbir Singh (Punjab)\u2019 to distinguish him from his two namesakes in the India team, Kullar was a member of the Indian team that won gold in the 1966 Asian Games and bronze […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81003,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81001\/revisions\/81003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}