Amritsar, July 15
Residents of Butala village are in a celebratory mood as the news of Dilpreet Singh and Shamsher Singh being part of the Indian men hockey team that will compete in Tokyo Olympics was announced. The two young hockey players from Amritsar are currently in Bangalore and will leave for Tokyo in a day’s time.
They have been a part of the Indian men hockey team in several international tournaments. Dilpreet was a part of the U-18 Asia Cup team that won gold in 2016 and also played at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. Dilpreet’s father Balwinder Singh, who is a hockey coach and runs a hockey club in Butala, said it was an extremely ideal time for Dilpreet to make his mark as the medal hopes are high this time from the men’s hockey team. “It’s a proud moment for us as a family and as a community that Dilpreet’s hard work has paid off. We have high hopes from him and from team India as they have a good chance of winning a medal,” he said. Dilpreet started playing hockey at the age of 5 and initially trained with Balwinder before he got into the training academy at the age of 11.