By Alkesh Sharma, IANS,
Chandigarh : Chandigarh sportspersons are on a song, be it Olympic shooting champion Abhinav Bindra, golfer Jeev Milkha Singh or cricketer Yuvraj Singh.
They are certainly creating waves and making their presence felt at the international level and are setting precedents for others.
Three months ago, it was the rifle shooter Bindra who made the country proud by winning India’s first individual Olympics gold medal at the Beijing Games. Now Jeev and Yuvraj have given enough reasons for Chandigarh people to feel proud.
Jeev, former Asia No.1, won the the Barclays Singapore Open Sunday and topped the Asian Order of Merit for the second time and moved up 14 places in the world rankings to 46th.
“Jeev has made the whole country proud and we are extremely happy with his win. He has shown the fighter’s spirit as before the tournament he was disturbed with some of his injuries, but he overcame all the odds and came out as a real winner,” Jeev’s father, former Olympian Milkha Singh, told IANS.
“His performance will certainly act as a morale booster for the budding sportspersons from Chandigarh. He is now all geared up to win the Majors and I am expecting him to get into the top-50 with this win,” said Milkha, who finished fourth in the 400 metres at the 1960 Tokyo Olympics.
Another high flier from the city is Yuvraj, who made a comeback with back-to-back tons against England and became the fourth Indian to score 10 or more ODI centuries. He was dropped from the tour of Sri Lanka but came back with a bang.
“Yuvraj followed strenuous schedules of exercise and training and even played in domestic cricket to maintain his form. Now, he is hitting the ball really fine and I hope that he can do wonders in the remaining matches of the series,” said Yograj Singh, former Test cricketer and Yuvraj’s father.
“Yuvraj is very serious about his game. He knows how to adapt to different conditions of the game and wants to leap big in every match,” said Yograj.