Mand school shines in Punjab games

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, September 23

The remote Mand area of the district has created waves in the just-concluded Khedan Vatan Punjab Dean games. Regwinder Bhatia, a physical education teacher at Government Senior Secondary School, Mand, has led his school to glory in the games. Regwinder Singh voluntarily opted for a posting at Mand School in 2019 and his school has bagged 10 medals in the Kheda Vatan Punjab Dean.

The Mand area is notorious for drug smuggling and the production of lahan. However, their team has set a benchmark this year, showing the way for other rural schools.

Throughout the gloomy Covid days, the athletics coach, continued training his students in various games – making makeshift arrangements in available grounds.

Regwinder and four of his school students and his daughter have bagged medals. Their collective haul in the games includes 10 medals in atheltics (high jump, races, hurdles), kick-boxing, wrestling – three gold medals, five silver medals and two bronze medals. They are all set to compete with the best of the state in the upcoming state-level games of the Khedan Vatan Punjab Dean.

The school team has also made it to the volleyball semis. Regwinder said, “I joined this school in 2019. The reason was simple – the sports school was five kilometres away from where I had the swimming pool and other infrastructure to train students and my daughter with. The school is located in a village and the impact of the Mand area is evident. Before me, the wrestling team was active but I began coaching students in athletics. Our school only has kabaddi and bandminton grounds.”

Regwinder took great pains to coach students for wrestling, his students go to the Surjit Academy, for kickboxing to the Maqsudan academy.

Regwinder added, “I’m so proud of my students. This was a brilliant opportunity. Moreover they got to play with me. I had been pushing them to aim for Gold if they want to go to bigger tourneys. We are providing coaching for swimming, too. We were also offered a swimming pool at the school but the premises are too small. So we hope for an all-weather swiming pool at Junior Model School so that students will train in all weathers in future..”

The 40-year-old physical education teacher, who has played in 22 National Games, bagged a gold and a silver in athletics in the 40-plus category in the games (gold in the 200-m race and silver in the 100-m race) in the Khedan Vatan Punjab Dean.

His student Shivanshu won a gold medal in the under-21 high jump, silver in kick-boxing and a bronze in the 110-m hurdle race. Student Mahavir won silver in kickboxing in the under-17 categpry, silver in the 110 hurdle and a bronze medal in high jump. Student Harpreet bagged the gold medal in wrestling in the under-17 46-kg weight category.

His student Gayatri also clinched a silver medal in the under-17 kickboxing contest. Regwinder’s nine-year-old daughter Pawani Bhatia – a student of the Police DAV Public School – bagged a Gold competing in the under-14 category. She won a Gold in the 4×50 m relay and two Silvers (in the 50-m breast stroke and 100-m breast stroke).

Regwinder also won a gold medal, two silver medals and a bronze medal in the championship hosted by the Swimming Federation of India in Bangalore earlier in November 2021, as well as three golds and one silver in the All India Athletic Championship held in Bangalore in May this year.