NEW DELHI: Two members of India’s last Olympic Gold medal-winning hockey team in Moscow 1980, Ravindra Pal Singh and Maharaj Krishan Kaushik, died from coronavirus on Saturday.
While 66-year-old MK Kaushik passed away in the capital, 62-year-old Ravinder Pal Singh passed away in Lucknow.
Kaushik, a right-out, passed away in the national capital after a three-week battle with the virus and leaves behind a legacy full of success and recognition on the hockey turf, both as player and coach. As per Indian Express, Kaushik scored three goals at Moscow 1980, including one in the final against Spain.
Singh, who succumbed to Covid-19 in Lucknow on Saturday after fighting the virus for two weeks, was a product of Uttar Pradesh Sports Hostel, Lucknow and Vasudevan Baskaran, the captain at the Moscow Games, remembers him as a player with good skills and adept at both the defensive and attacking aspects of the game.
Arjuna Awardee MK Kaushik had coached both men's and women's teams during the 1990s and 2000s. Under his coaching, the Indian men's hockey team won the Gold in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games and the Indian women's hockey team won Bronze at the Doha Asian Games in 2006. Kaushik was also the assistant coach of the Indian men's Hockey team that won the Asian Games Gold in 2014. For his contribution to Indian hockey, he was also bestowed with the Dronacharya Award in 2002.
Former centre-half Ravinder Pal Singh represented the national side in a number of tournaments, which included the Champions Trophy in Karachi (1980, 1983), World Cup in Mumbai in 1982, Asia Cup in Karachi in 1982 and the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
Singh, who succumbed to Covid-19 in Lucknow on Saturday after fighting the virus for two weeks, was a product of Uttar Pradesh Sports Hostel, Lucknow.
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