India

Hailing Balkishan Singh as a ''father figure'', the Indian Women's Hockey Federation (IWHF) mourned the loss of the man who coached the national women's team to gold in the ninth Asiad at Delhi in 1982 and the first edition of the Asia Cup in Japan's Kyoto the year before.

''President- Vidya Stokes, secretary Amrita Bose, member states of the IWFH and all women hockey players condole the sudden demise of Balkishan Singh, Olympian and Arjuna awardee,'' the federation said in a media release here today.

Balkishan, who won a rare double accolade for the men's team as a member of the gold medal winning Melbourne 1956 side and as a coach of a similar success story in Moscow 1980, passed away at Patiala December 31 after prolonged illness.

The 75-year-old veteran who also represented India in Rome 1960 and coached it at the Los Angeles Games, 1984 died yesterday. He was recalled to national duty before the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

Balkishan was not only a legendary hockey player but an able administrator. He had served the Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports as its chief coach, as Dean, Academic Wing and also Regional Director of Sports authority of India's Northern Centre at Chandigarh.

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