Tejinderpal Singh Toor became a national sensation a week ago when he won a gold medal at a shotput event in Asian Games in Jakarta by breaking the Asian games record with a throw of 20.75m.
Tejinderpal Singh Toor became the first Indian in 16 years to have won a Gold medal at the Asian Games in Shotput, last time an Indian won gold in this event was back in 2002 edition of Asian Games which took place in Busan, South Korea when Bahadur Singh Sagoo threw 19.03m.
Tejinder made the nation proud with his achievement and to celebrate his achievement, he was on his way home when the news of a personal tragedy struck him and sent him to mourning.
He was coming home to his family to fulfill his ailing father’s wish of holding the gold medal his son won at the Asian Games. Toor was desperate to gift his father the Gold medal.
But, as he left for Moga in Punjab after landing in Delhi from Jakarta on Monday evening, Toor got the shattering news that his father Karam Singh had expired.
Tejinder’s father Karam Singh has been battling cancer two years and he knew about his father’s deteriorating and he immediately left for Moga via road from Delhi and he was barely a few kilometers away from his hometown when he got the news of his father’s demise.
The Athletics Federation of India also expressed shock at the news on Twitter.
“AFI is in deep shock. We received Tejinder Toor,our Asian Shot Put Champion Gold Medalist at the airport last night & as he was on his way to hotel, sad news of his father’s demise reached us. May his soul rest in eternal peace. Our heartfelt condolences to Tejinder & his family,” the AFI tweet read.
Tejinder might have not been able to meet his father and gift him the gold medal, but this will only motivate him to work harder and medal at the Olympics which is every athlete’s dream and this is the way he can honor his father and bring glory to this great nation.
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Tejinderpal Singh Toor breaks Asian Games record en route to epic Gold medal in Shotput
