Gagan Ajit Singh Profile

Gagan Ajit Singh is an Indian Hockey player and an efficient striker on the field. He is the son of Ajit Singh, the veteran Indian Hockey player who represented the Indian Hockey team at Munich Olympic Games 1972 and Montreal Olympic Games 1976. The uncle of Gagan, Harmik Singh has also been an Indian Hockey player and also the Captain of the Indian Hockey team in the past.

Early Life
He was born on the 9th of December 1980 at Ferozepur, Punjab. Gagan received his education at Union Academy School and Jamia Millia Islamia, both located at Delhi. He picked up the game of Hockey at quite an early age, and also studied at Sports College, Jalandhar and Air India Hockey Academy, Delhi in the year 1995-96 to hone his game skills.

Beginning of Hockey Career
Gagan began playing serious Hockey at Junior Level and played for Air India Academy in the Junior National Hockey tournament 1997. With a total number of 26 goals, he was the biggest scorer of the tournament. In the Junior National Hockey tournament of the year 1999, he played as the Captain of his team.

While he played at the Junior National tournament in the year 1997, Gagan made his debut into the Senior Hockey the same year and played at the Senior National Hockey tournament 1997 and 1999 held at Bangalore and Hyderabad respectively. He also participated in the Jawaharlal Nehru Hockey tournament 2001, 2002 and 2004. In the 2001 event he was declared Player of the Tournament, while he led his team to final victory in the 2002 tournament and also scored the Golden Goal in the Final match. Apart from it, he also played at Muruguppa Gold Cup tournament 1998 and Surjeet Memorial Hockey tournament 2004.

International Hockey
Gagan made his debut into the arena of International Hockey in the year 1997 with a Test Series against Russia. After this he participated in the Commonwealth Games 1998 held at Kuala Lumpur, South African tour 1999, 14 European tours from the year 1999 to 2004, 10 Australian tours from 1999 to 2004 and Indo-Pak Series 1999 where he scored 17 goals and became highest scorer of India against the opponent nation. He also played at Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament held at Kuala Lumpur in 2000, Champions Challenge tournament 2001 and New Zealand tour of 2001 where he scored 4 goals including a Hat-Trick.

Further, Gagan played at Afro-Asian Games 2003 held at Hyderabad and scored 5 goals and the Asia Cup tournaments 1999 and 2003. He was a part of the Indian Hockey squad that played at Busan Asian Games 2002 and scored 4 goals at the event, including the Match Winning goal against Pakistan in the Semi-Final match. Gagan Ajit Singh has played 2 Champions Trophy tournaments for India in the year 2002 and 2003, and scoring 4 goals in each of the events, has become the All Time Highest Scorer for India at the prestigious event. He has represented the Indian Hockey team at 2 Olympic events as well, the Sydney Olympic Games 2000 and Athens Olympic Games 2004. At the Athens Olympic Games, he was the highest scorer for India as he scored 7 goals at the event.

Club Hockey
Apart from representing the Indian National Hockey team at a number of International Hockey tournaments, Gagan Ajit Singh has also been associated with a Foreign Hockey club. Since the year 2005, he has been playing for a club from Netherlands, named HC Klein Zwitserland in a Hockey league called Hoofdklasse.

Awards and Honors
For his brilliant skills in the game of Hockey and his consistent performance as a remarkable Hockey player for the Indian team, Gagan Ajit Singh was bestowed upon the prestigious Arjuna Award by the Government of India in the year 2002. He has been honored with a number of other awards too, including Promising Junior Sportsperson Award by Delhi Sports Journalists Asociation in 1997, Hero Honda Sports Award 2003-2004 and Birla Foundation Award 2002.