Ajmer Singh is an Indian basketball player who was awarded the country's highest sporting honor, the Arjuna Award, in 1982. He represented the country in the Asian Basketball Championships and in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
According the The Hindu, Singh was "a rough and tough player and his sole aim was to score as many baskets as possible. A dedicated man, he was remarkable for his appetite for baskets. As a result, he emerged as one of the top 10 shooters in the 1980 Moscow Olympics."[1]
Contents |
Ajmer Singh Chopra was born on 12 December, 1953 at Rukanpur village, near Uchana in the Karnal district of Haryana. He joined Haryana Police after his education and started practicing volleyball. At 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) tall, it was thought that he could be a good player. Just when he started getting serious about volleyball, the local basketball coach called him over one day.
Singh moved to Kota, which had a tradition in basketball. He played for the Rajasthan team and later moved to the Indian Railways team. The high point of his career was the Moscow Olympics where his performance was rated highly. His average per game at the 1980 Olympics was 21 points, with the next best scorer from the Indian team, Radhey Shyam, averaging 14 points. Singh scored nearly a third of India's points in the competition.[2]
He has been contributing to the game as a coach of Indian Railways after his retirement from regular competition in 1990. He aims to come back to his native state of Haryana and start a basketball Academy after his retirement from Indian Railways.