Sukhvinderjeet passes away

By Haresh Deol

KLANG: "A big loss to the nation".
Those were the words of former national coach C. Paramalingam as the hockey fraternity mourns the death of former Olympian Sukhvinderjeet Singh Kulwant Singh yesterday.
Sukhvinderjeet passed away due to a heart attack. He was 51.
"Sukhvinderjeet was a very nice man, a nice character to be with. It is such a terrible loss especially at such a young age," said Paramalingam.
"He has always been a very obliging man, on and off the field. He will surely be missed."
Sukvinderjeet, a former Setapak High School lad, rose to fame when he was spotted by Paramalingam to play for the Klang Municipal Council hockey team.
He then landed a job there but it didn’t stop him from representing Selangor and later the national team.
Sukhvinderjeet played under the watchful eyes of Paramalingam as the team played in the pre-Olympics in Europe followed by the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Among his teammates then were Ow Soon Kooi, Yahya Atan, Sarjit Singh, Stephen Van Huizen and Zulkifli Abbas.