Hockey Olympian Lt Col Haripal Kaushik passes away

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 26

Lt Col Haripal Kaushik, who represented India in hockey and was the vice captain of the 1956 (gold medal), 1960 (silver medal) and 1964 (gold medal) Olympic teams, passed away at his residence in Jalandhar cantonment on Thursday night.

According to his daughter Veronica, Kaushik was suffering from dementia since 2015 and was in the last stage.

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“He was a fighter throughout his life and struggled hard against the disease,” Veronica said. 

He was 84 and was going to celebrate his next birthday on February 2. He was survived by his daughter. His wife Prem Bala Kaushik had died long ago. 

Kaushik was commissioned in 1st Sikh regiment in 1959. He was a superb athlete and an exceptional hockey player and rose through various services and national-level hockey competitions to become the vice captain of the “unbeatable” Indian Olympic hockey team in 1956 (gold medal), 1960 (silver medal) and 1964 (gold medal).

He was awarded the ‘Vir Chakra’ for displaying exemplary courage and self-disregard in the 1962 Indo-China war when he led his company from the front in the face of the enemy. 

The Haripal Stadium, raised in honour of the officer, is a lush green and sprawling multipurpose sports field in MIRC.

It has a standard athletic track, field for conducting various athletics events, a hockey and a football ground, a multi-gym complex and a spectators seating all around.