Hockey Olympians Mandeep Singh and Udita Duhan tie the knot

A unique love story of Olympians Mandeep Singh and Udita Duhan, which started on hockey grounds seven years ago, finally matured with the tying of a wedding knot on Friday.

The Anand Karaj of Jalandhar-based Mandeep and Hisar-based Udita was solemnised at Gurdwara Singh Sabha in Model Town, Jalandhar, and was attended by the entire men and women teams of Indian hockey.

Hockey India officials, including general secretary Bhola Nath Singh, too came in to bless the star couple. Udita wore a red suit with heavy golden embroidery. She wore traditional gold jewellery, including danglers, neck piece and tikka, donning a typical Punjabi look. Complimenting her was Mandeep’s attire, a red turban and a red stole with a contrasting pista green colour sherwani. The stole had words ‘Mandeep weds Udita’ embroidered in a golden thread.

The couple had met for the first time in Bengaluru in 2018 while practising for the Asian Games. “We became best friends and are eventually a couple today. Since we are from the same profession, we shall strive to do even better in hockey now. We shall be heading to our practice sessions just days after our marriage,” beamed Udita.

The captain of the Indian hockey team, Harmanpreet (popularly known as Sarpanch Saab) attended all the traditional ceremonies organised by the family, including haldi, jago and sangeet. Ravinderjit Singh and Davinderjit Kaur, parents of Mandeep, said, “We hope that they will now bring two medals home in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.”