5th anniversary celebration of Delhi chapter of OTHL

Hockey’s grassroot NGO One Thousand Hockey Legs celebrated its fifth anniversary of Delhi chapter in a simple but impressive manner last week end in Delhi.

All the affiliated 24 schools in Delhi, including their Under-12, Under-15 and Under-17 teams gathered at the Shivaji Stadium and engaged in various activities for two days to mark the milestone event.

One Thousand Hockey Legs, which seeks to introduce the sport of hockey to at least 500 school kids each years, was founded on 28^th Dec 2008, with commissioning its flagship project in Puducherry, Kolkata and Kanpur (UP). While these provincial units celebrated the 7^th year of OTHL, Delhi did its fifth year anniversary on 24^th Dec 2015.

On the occasion, those who were enrolled this academic session played their first tournament on synthetic turf ground, and were excited to their new experience and exposure.

Former OTHL stars, who moved to other schools for career advancement, played a friendly against Citizen Hockey XI team – name by which the NGO team plays in the Hockey India Sub-Junior National Championships – and the match deservedly ended in an exciting 1-1 draw.

Sunil Kumar of Former OTHL star XI struck early, but defender Pawan equalized through impeccable conversion of a penalty corner in the dying moments.

On the occasion, the kids expressed their gratitude to Hockey India, the national parent body, by displaying a ‘Thank You Hockey India’ banner.

They also thanked Jaap Stockmann, the Dutch legend, who shipped brand new equipment to them on volunteer basis.

OTHL was founded by hockey historian K. Arumugam in Dec 2008 in four cities of India, later expanded to include Delhi in 2010, to improve the lot of hockey after it failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

Hockey India accorded its Hoc-Key member affiliation three years ago in order to encourage such public participation in promotion of India’s national game.