Harmilan wins silver, repeats history after 21 yrs

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, October 4

Harmilan Bains from Mahilpur town in Hoshiarpur has repeated history after 21 years by winning a silver medal in the 800 meter race in the Asian Games on Wednesday. Earlier, her mother Madhuri A Singh had won a silver medal in the same event in the Busan Asian Games in 2002.

Her father Amandeep Singh had bagged the silver medal in 1,500 meter race in the SAF (South Asian Federation) Games in 1996, while her mother Madhuri had won the gold medal in 1,500 meters and 800 meters in the SAF Games held in Pakistan in 2004. Harmilan is the only female athlete from Punjab to make it to the Indian Asian Games squad. She is also the only female athlete from India to qualify for two events.

Amandeep told The Tribune that they had been trying to get an athletics track established in Hoshiarpur but there no progress to date. He said Hoshiarpur has produced many famous athletes but till date there is no athletics track here due to which they have had to go to other districts and even other states for practice. “During Covid, due to the efforts of Union Minister Som Prakash, she was able to get permission to practice in the stadium of Dharamshala in Himachal,” said Amandeep.

Amandeep expressed his unhappiness over the reduction in the incentive amount given to the players by the state government. He said earlier Rs 1 crore was awarded to the gold medal winner but on September 30, the Chief Minister announced that the state government will give Rs 70 lakh to the gold medal winner. He said while in Chandigarh, there is a provision of giving Rs 2 crore, 1.5 crore and Rs 1 crore for top three medals and in Haryana also almost the same amount of incentive is given.