Gurjit Kaur

Last updated

Gurjit Kaur
Gurjit Kaur.jpg
Kaur in August 2022
Personal information
Born (1995-10-25) 25 October 1995 (age 28)
Miadi Kalan, Amritsar, Punjab, India
Height 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight 59 kg (130 lb)
Playing position Defender
Club information
Current club Railways
Senior career
YearsTeam
Railways
National team
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2014– India 137 (86)
Medal record
Women's field hockey
Representing Flag of India.svg  India
Asian Games
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2018 Jakarta Team
Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2022 Birmingham Team
Asia Cup
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2017 Gifu
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2022 Muscat
Asian Champions Trophy
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2018 Donghae
FIH Nations Cup
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2022 Spain
South Asian Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2016 Guwahati Team

Gurjit Kaur (born 25 October 1995) is an Indian female field hockey player. [1] [2] [3] She plays the position of a defender and is also the team's designated drag flicker. She has represented India internationally, most recently at the Hockey World Cup 2018. She was the most successful goal-scorer during India's Asia Cup title triumph with 8 goals. [4] She has played 53 international matches, as of July 2018. [1] [5] She was named women's "Player of the Year" at FIH Player of the Year Awards for the year 2020-21. [6] She was great Indian player who represent punjab and India at national level.

Contents

Early life

Gurjit Kaur was born on 25 October 1995, in the Miadi Kalan village in Amritsar, Punjab. She was born into a farming family to parents Satnam Singh and Harjinder Kaur. She has one older sister, Pradeep Kaur. It was important to her parents to give her and her sister a quality education, so they elected to send their two daughters to a private school in Ajnala, over 13 km away, instead of the local government school in the village. Gurjit's father Satnam Singh would fit his daughters into his cycle and drive them to school, and wait all day until their school got over to ferry them back. [7]

Since this was not a practical solution, her parents finally decided to send their two daughters to a boarding school over 70 km away in Kairon in the Tarn Taran district of Punjab in 2006. [8] Kairon happened to be one of the oldest and most famous women's hockey nurseries, and this is where the two sisters discovered their passion for the sport. Their excellence in hockey earned them a spot in the government wing of the school, granting them free education and meals, which came as a relief to the sisters' cash-strapped parents. [7]

Gurjit Kaur continued her education at Kairon until 2011, after which she moved to Jalandhar's Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women to continue her education and her training – which is where she got serious about drag-flicking. After this, she got placed in the Indian Railways as a junior clerk in Allahabad. [9]

Career

Gurjit Kaur got her first shot at playing for the country when she was called for the Senior National Camp in 2014. However, she could not secure a place on the team. [8] [7] It was only in 2017 that she became a permanent member of the Indian women's hockey team. Gurjit Kaur then played in the Test series in Canada in March 2017, the Hockey World League Round 2 in April 2017 and the Hockey World League semifinals in July 2017.[ citation needed ]

The Dutch head coach of India, Sjoerd Marijne, encouraged her to change her stick to get better at drag flicking, which improved her game. "The stick I used earlier felt light and I didn’t get enough power. So, when we went to Holland, Marijne asked me to try drag-flicking with a different stick. It was much better and I felt more powerful. The change has helped me,” Gurjit said in an interview to The Tribune. [7] Marijne also arranged for her to train with Dutch coach Toon Siepman, who helped her work on her basics like her posture and footwork during the drag-flicking process.[ citation needed ]

Gurjit Kaur's time in the spotlight came in the 2017 Asia Cup, in which the Indian team emerged as continental champions and consequently qualified for a spot at the Hockey World Cup in London in 2018. Gurjit Kaur ended the tournament as the third-highest goal scorer by netting eight goals, and was also the Indian team's top scorer. She converted seven penalty corners including a hat-trick against Kazakhstan in the quarter-final. In the semi-final she scored twice against defending champions Japan. [10] [4]

Gurjit Kaur also made an impressive performance at the Commonwealth Games 2018, held in Australia. Although India did not secure a podium finish, coming in at fourth place, Gurjit Kaur caught attention for her two penalty corner conversion goals against Malaysia in its second pool A match during the tournament, helping India score a 4–1 win. [11]

In the lead-up to the Hockey World Cup 2018, the Indian team played a series of five matches against the Spanish national team dubbed the Spain Tour, which they won 4–1. In the final match, Gurjit Kaur scored two goals alongside skipper Rani Rampal who also scored two goals, bringing the final score to 4–1. [12] [13]

Gurjit Kaur is also a part of the Hockey World Cup squad as India's defender and drag flicker. [14]

Gurjit Kaur also made another impressive performance by scoring the only goal against Australia in 2020 Summer Olympics. This helped India reach semi-finals in Olympic women's hockey for first time ever. [15]

Related Research Articles

Drag flicking is a scoring technique in the sport of field hockey. It was first seen in the late 1980s in Australia. It is used as an attacking technique, mainly within penalty corner involving two main components known as the scoop and flick. The technique involves a running up, and then forceful 'slinging' technique of the ball around your body, towards the goals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandeep Singh</span> Indian field hockey player, politician

Sandeep Singh is an Indian professional field hockey player from Haryana and an ex-captain of the Indian national hockey team. He generally features as a full back and is a penalty corner specialist for the team. He has been dubbed "Flicker Singh" in the media for his specialization of the drag-flick, one of the fastest in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rani Rampal</span> Indian field hockey player

Rani Rampal is an Indian field hockey player and coach. At the age of 15, she was the youngest player in the national team which participated in the 2010 World Cup. She has completed her schooling but was not able to get the graduate degree due to practice sessions and matches which were lined up. She plays forward on her team. She has played 212 international matches and scored 134 goals. She is currently the Captain for Indian Women's Hockey Team. She is also well known as a striker who often doubles up as mid-fielder. She has a great fascination with CWG. In 2020, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri.

Jugraj Singh is a former Indian field hockey player whose playing career was cut short by a 2003 car accident. Born in 1983 to a Sikh family in Punjab, the former Punjab policeman was a self-coached, drag-flicker defender who later became a coach. A product of the Surjeet Singh Hockey Academy in Jalandhar and the Air India Hockey Academy in Delhi, Singh played left fullback for the Punjab Police team in Jalandhar; he made his international debut in the 2001 under-18 Asia Cup in Ipoh. Singh was not the only field-hockey player in his family; his aunt Rajbeer Kaur Rai is a former India captain and recipient of the Arjuna Award, and his brother-in-law Gurmail Singh played on the 1980 Olympic team. Singh played a pivotal role in taking Indian field hockey to a higher level by winning the Junior World Cup, the 2003 Indo-Pak Champions Trophy and the Asian Championship. He was considered to be the next Sohail Abbas by many experts; in a series against Pakistan, he performed so well that Abbas said he could see a younger version of himself in Singh.

Vokkaliga Ramachandra Raghunath is a former Indian professional field hockey player. He played as a fullback and was known for his abilities as a drag flicker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vandana Katariya</span> Indian field hockey player

Vandana Katariya is an Indian field hockey player. She plays as a forward in the Indian national team. Vandana rose to prominence in 2013, being India's top goal-scorer in the 2013 Women's Hockey Junior World Cup, where India won a bronze medal; she scored five goals in the tournament, the third by any player.

Rupinder Pal Singh is a professional field hockey player, who represents India in the Indian Hockey Team. He plays as a fullback and is known for his abilities as one of the best drag flickers in the world. He represented India in the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow, 2014 Asian Games at Incheon, 2016 Olympic Games held at Rio de Janeiro, and at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, held at Gold Coast, Australia. He was part of the Indian hockey team that won a bronze medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deep Grace Ekka</span> Indian field hockey player

Deep Grace Ekka is an Indian former field hockey player, who represented the India national field hockey team. She has been selected for Arjun award in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harmanpreet Singh</span> Indian field hockey player

Harmanpreet Singh is an Indian field hockey player who plays as a defender for and captains the Indian national team. He is a penalty corner specialist and is regarded as one of the best drag flickers in the world.

Navjot Kaur is an Indian field hockey player. She is part of the Indian Women's Hockey team in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India at the 2018 Commonwealth Games</span> Sporting event delegation

India competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia from 4 to 15 April 2018. It was India's 17th appearance at the Commonwealth Games. With 26 Gold medals and a total of 66 medals, India finished 3rd for the tournament. It was India's best position since the 2010 Commonwealth Games, which they hosted.

The women's hockey event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games was held at the Gold Coast Hockey Centre from 5 to 14 April 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India at the 2018 Asian Games</span> Sporting event delegation

India competed at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia, from 18 August to 2 September. Neeraj Chopra was the flag bearer for the opening ceremony while Rani Rampal was named as the flag bearer for the closing ceremony.

Women's tournament for field hockey at the 2018 Asian Games was held at the Gelora Bung Karno Hockey Field, Jakarta, Indonesia from 19 to 31 August 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lalremsiami</span> Indian field hockey player

Lalremsiami Hmarzote is an Indian professional field hockey player who plays as a forward and occasionally as a halfback for the Indian national team. At the club level, she plays for Sports Authority of India. Hmarzote was a part of the 18-member squad that represented India at the 2018 World Cup. At the Asian Games that followed, she became the first sportsperson from Mizoram to win an Asian medal after she won silver.

Suman Devi Thoudam is an Indian field hockey player from Imphal, Manipur. She has represented India internationally and plays the position of a defender. She has played 11 international matches as of July 2018.

Sjoerd Marijne is a Dutch former field hockey player and former coach of the Indian women's national team.

This article displays the rosters for the teams competing at the 2019 Ready Steady Tokyo women's field hockey test event. Each team had to submit 18 players.

Deepika Kumari is a field hockey player and member of Indian women's hockey team. She hails from Hisar, Haryana. She plays for Indian Oil Corporation Limited in the domestic hockey tournaments. She has ten caps as a Senior India player. She plays as a forward and specialises in drag-flicks.

Rajwinder Kaur is an Indian field hockey player and member of Indian women's hockey team. She hails from Punjab. She plays for Indian Oil Corporation Limited in the domestic hockey tournaments. She plays as a forward.

References

  1. 1 2 "Gurjit Kaur". Hockey India. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  2. ↑ "India at CWG 2018: Gurjit Kaur scores twice as India defeat Malaysia 4–1 in women's hockey". Daily News & Analysis. 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  3. ↑ "Gurjit Kaur". Gold Coast 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Gurjit Kaur – Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  5. ↑ "Hockey India | Spain Tour (Women)". hockeyindia.org. Archived from the original on 19 July 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  6. ↑ "Hockey: India sweeps FIH annual awards". The Times of India .
  7. 1 2 3 4 Grewal, Inderjit (12 November 2017). "Trust the stick she carries". The Tribune. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  8. 1 2 "'Hard work will pay off in the World Cup,' says star drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur". 15 June 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  9. ↑ "City's 'Chak De' girls aim for Olympics gold". The Tribune. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  10. ↑ Scroll Staff. "From Gurjit Kaur to Savita Poonia: Four players who impressed during India's Asia Cup triumph". Scroll.in. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  11. ↑ "Commonwealth Games 2018: Gurjit Kaur strikes twice as India women's team thrash Malaysia – Laureus World Sports Awards 2017" . Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  12. ↑ "Rani Rampal, Gurjit Kaur lead India to series-levelling win over Spain". The Indian Express. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  13. ↑ Scroll Staff. "Hockey: Rani Rampal and Gurjit Kaur help India end Spanish tour with a 4–1 victory". Scroll.in. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  14. ↑ Scroll Staff. "Rani Rampal to lead Indian team in women's hockey World Cup". Scroll.in. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  15. ↑ "Brave Indian women create history, enter Olympic hockey semifinals for first time".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.