Canada’s hockey team has two Punjabi-origin players
Tuesday, 19/07/2016
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MOGA: Of the three Indianorigin hockey players who will walk under the Canadian flag at the Rio Olympics (starting on August 5), two—Jagdish Gill and Sukhpal Panesar— have their roots in Punjab.
Gill and Panesar have made it to the Canadian men’s hockey team. Keegan Pereira, who hails from Goa is the third having roots in India.
Gill, 31, who is a native of Manuke village in Moga, made his international debut for Canada at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the team won the silver. His family shifted to Kolkata when he was a child and he shifted to Canada in 2006.
Talking to HT over phone from Canada, Gill said, “After coming to Canada, I quit the sport for three years to focus on my studies. But as hockey was my passion, after getting the permanent residency (PR), I continued the game. My dream of playing in the Olympics will come true at Rio and it is going to be my life’s biggest moment.”
A coach at Abbotsford field hockey club, GIll is pursuing Certified Professional Accountant (CPA) at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). “Though our family left Moga for Kolkata when I was a kid, we are connected with our roots. I will visit my village after the Olympics,” he said.
Panesar, 22, made his senior team debut in 2010. The highlight of his junior career was competing in the 2013 Junior Hockey World Cup at New Delhi and being a member of the Canadian team that won the silver at the Pan American Cup. In 2014 he competed in the Commonwealth Games.
