Hockey stalwarts succumb to Covid

New Delhi, May 8: Former India hockey player and coach M. K. Kaushik on Saturday died after battling Covid-19 for the past three weeks. He was 66 and survived by his son and wife.

Kaushik, a member of the 1980 Moscow Olympics gold-medal winning Indian team, had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 17 and was admitted to a nursing home in New Delhi.

“He was shifted to ventilator this morning but passed away just now,” Kaushik’s son Ehsan said.

Another former India hockey player and a member of the 1980 Moscow Olympics-winning side Ravinder Pal Singh also died on Saturday morning in Lucknow after battling Covid-19 for nearly two weeks. He was 60.

Kaushik had coached both the senior men and women’s teams. Under his coaching, India men’s team won a gold medal at the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok.

Also, Indian women team had won bronze medal at the Doha Asian Games in 2006 under his coaching.

He was awarded the Arjuna Award in 1998, before being bestowed with

● M. K. Kaushik and Ravinder Pal Singh, members of the 1980 Moscow Olympics gold-medal winning Indian hockey team, lost their battle to Covid on a sombre Saturday for sport.

the Dronacharya award in 2002.

Singh was admitted at the Vivekananda Hospital on April 24 after contracting the deadly virus.

According to family sources, Singh had recovered from the virus and was shifted to non-Covid ward on Thursday after testing negative. But his condition suddenly deteriorated on Friday and he was put on a ventilator.

Singh, who also played at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, did not get married and is survived by a niece, Pragya Yadav.

Singh also played in the 1979 Junior World Cup and took voluntary retirement from State Bank of India after quitting hockey.

Born in Sitapur on September 6, 1960, Singh excelled as a centre-half from 1979 to 1984.