The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Louis' children launch hockey tournament

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Louis' children launch hockey tournament

By Our Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM, APRIL 12. Children of the late Louis Gallyot, a National athlete, boxer and the first captain of Visakhapatnam Port Trust's hockey team, are organising a hockey tournament in his memory from April 15 to 18 at the Railway Stadium here.

Louis Gallyot, born in Kakinada in 1929, joined the port in 1947 when it was under the Bengal Nagpur Railway. Then they were playing under banner of the Visakha Port Gymkhana Club.

Louis started representing the port since 1950. Under his captaincy, VPT won the Bobbili Raja Gold Cup and the Vizianagaram Gold Cup.

He was an executive committee member of the Friends Hockey Association, one of the oldest clubs of the region. Louis died in November 2003.

There were some sponsors like the Lotus Marine of Kakinada and Pepsi but Louis' children are bearing two-third of the Rs. 75,000 expenditure of the tournament. District Collector Praveen Prakash also promised to help the organisers.

June Gallyot, his daughter who is now the coach of the District Sports Authority, and first reserve of the Indian team for the Beijing Asian Games in 1991, son David Gallyot, a hockey player who was the first from Visakhapatnam to get selected for the Southern India team for Wills inter-zonal tournament in the past, were present at the press conference here on Tuesday where the details of the tournament were given.

Eight teams — SBI (Hyderabad), SAAP Hockey Academy (Tirupati), Friends HA and DSA (Visakhapatnam) in Pool A, AP Police (Hyderabad), VPT, SAI STC (Hyderabad) and Dolphin Club (Visakha) in Pool B, will play the league-cum-knockout tournament sanctioned by the Andhra Hockey Association, the District Sports Development Officer, N. Surya Rao, informed.

Cash awards of Rs. 10,000, Rs. 5,000, Rs. 1,500 and Rs. 1,000 will be given to the first four teams. R.D. Abharanam, who trained most of the Andhra and Hyderabad players, the surviving members of Louis' team and the family members of the deceased players will be felicitated during the valedictory function along with some veteran women hockey players.

International umpires, Danny Kenny and Vijay Shetty from Mumbai, are among the officials invited to conduct the matches.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport