7. Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympic Games
Charanjit Singh led India to what was Independent India’s 4th Olympic Gold medal in Field Hockey. This medal came at the 1964 Summer Olympics which was hosted at Tokyo, Japan. The medal got India’s way after 8 years as they had lost to Pakistan in 1960 Summer Olympics to stay content with a silver medal. It was a 9 match campaign for India out of which they won 7 and drew 2.
India started their gold medal campaign with a 2-0 win over Belgium with Prithipal Singh and Haripal Kaushik scoring for India. In the second and third match India drew 1-1 with Germany and Spain with Prithipal Singh and Mohinder Lal scoring respectively.
In the fourth match, India drubbed minnows Hong Kong 6-0. Prithpal Singh, Darshan Singh & Harbinder Singh each scored twice. Fifth match saw India overpassing Malaysia with a 3-1 win. Prithpal Singh scored twice while Harbinder Singh scored once.
In the sixth match, India beat Canada 3-0. Harbinder Singh scored twice while Prithipal Singh scored once. Seventh match saw India beat Holland 2-1. Prithipal Singh & Victor John Peter scored both for the Indian team. Eight match was the semifinals of the Olympic Hockey tournament.
In the semifinals, India defeated Australia 3-1. Prithipal Singh & Mohinder Lal scored for India with 2 & 1 goals respectively to their names. Into the final, India faced arch-rivals Pakistan as their last frontier to conquer. The gold medal match didn’t see scoreboard running apart from the one time Mohinder Lal made it to. India were champions!!
Prithipal Singh was the highest goalscorer for India. This was 7th of the 8 Olympic Hockey gold medals India won.