NATIONAL SPORTS DAY coming 29th

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NATIONAL SPORTS DAY

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                               India celebrates its National Sports Day every year on the 29th August. The day is celebrated to honour the legendary hockey player, Major Dhyan Chand Singh. 29th August happens to be the birth anniversary of Dhyan Chand, who made India proud by his extraordinary sporting skills. He was the greatest hockey player India has ever seen.
                              Dhyan chand, born on august 29 1905 at prayag, Allahabad, India in a rajput family. His father served the Indian Army as a Subedar, and played the game of Hockey. He studied only upto sixth standard as his family used to move from one place to another before finally settled at Jhansi. In his younger days, Dhyan was not much interested into sports although he liked wrestling a lot. He started playing Hockey with his friends who used to themselves make Hockey sticks from tree branches and balls from ragged clothes. At the age of 14 years he visited a Hockey match with his father, where one team was down by 2 goals. He insisted his father to play from the losing side, and when an Army Officer let him do so, Dhyan scored 4 goals for the team. Impressed by his skills, the Officer offered him to join the army and at the age of 16 years Dhyan was inducted into the Punjab Regiment as a Sepoy in the year 1922. Subedar-Major Bhole Tiwari of Brahmin Regiment became Dhyan’s mentor inside the Army and taught him the basics of the game. Pankaj Gupta was the first Coach of Dhyan Singh who predicted that one day he would shine like the Moon, called Chand in Hindi. Hence, Dhyan Singh came to be known as Dhyan Chand after that.
                              Chand is most remembered for his goal-scoring feats and for his three Olympic gold medals (1928, 1932, and 1936) in field hockey, while India was dominant in the sport. He joined the Indian army in 1922 and came to prominence when he toured New Zealand with the army team in 1926. After playing in the 1928 and 1932 Olympic Games, Chand captained the Indian team at the 1936 Games in Berlin, scoring three goals in the 8–1 defeat of Germany in the final match. During India’s victorious world tour of 1932, he scored 133 goals. Known as “the Wizard” for his superb ball control, Chand played his final international match in 1948, having scored more than 400 goals during his international career.
In 1956 he retired from the army with the rank of major. His son, Ashok Kumar Singh, was a member of India’s Olympic field hockey teams in the 1970s and scored the winning goal in the 1975 World Cup championship.

                              The National Sports Day is dedicated to the brilliant hockey player Dhyan Chand. This day is celebrated by organizing friendly matches between different Indian hockey teams at the Dhyan Chand National stadium in New Delhi which was constructed in the respect and honor of Major Dhyan Chand.

                             On this day, sports persons commemorate this day in a sportive way. The President of India Bestows prestigious awards such as the Arjuna and Dronacharya Award, Dhyan Chand Award, etc to the sports persons who have contributed to the growth of sports all through their sports career and also after retirement. A lot of schools throughout the country celebrate this day as their Annual Sports Day and young people are also encouraged and made aware of the possibilities in sports and what all advancement the country has obtained in sports.