New Delhi, Jun 25 (IBNS): Following the footsteps of the Indian cricket board, Hockey India (HI) also felicitated 34 Olympic gold medallist with an ex-gratia of Rs.2lakhs each.

The grand felicitation was held during the send off for the national team for the London Olympics.

Out of the 34 living Olympians to have received the one-time monetary benefit from the HI coffers, 26 were present on the occasion.

Leslie Claudius (1948 London, 1952 Helsinki and 1956 Melbourne), Keshav Dutt (1948 London, 1952 Helsinki), Jaswant Rajput (1948 London, 1952 Helsinki), Raghbir Lal (1948 London, 1956 London) and Harpal Kaushik (1956 Melbourne, 1964 Tokyo and silver in 1960 Rome) were among the those who were present.

SM Ali Syed, Charanjit Singh, Nandy Singh and Balbir Singh Senior gave the function a miss due to health reasons while AS Rana, Allan Sheofield, Darshan Singh and Gurdev Singh were out of the country.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley, sports minister Ajay Maken and Indian Olympic Association acting president VK Malhotra, HI secretary general Narinder Batra were also present.

"It was wonderful to have received the honour after so many years. By this function, HI provided us a platform to meet old friends and former team-mates," said M.M.Somaya, a member of the 1980 Olympic gold medal winning squad.

Complete list of players to be felicitated:

V Baskaran (Gold-1980 Moscow), Rajinder Singh (Gold-1980 Moscow), BB Chetri (Gold-1980 Moscow), Sylvanus Dung Dung (Gold-1980 Moscow), Davinder Singh Garcha (Gold-1980 Moscow), Gurmail Singh (Gold-1980 Moscow), Ravinder Pal (Gold-1980 Moscow), M M Somaya (Gold-1980 Moscow), M K Kaushik (Gold-1980 Moscow), Charanjit Kumar (Gold-1980 Moscow), Surinder Singh Sodhi (Gold-1980 Moscow), Mervyn Fernandes (Gold-1980 Moscow), Zafar Iqbal (Gold-1980 Moscow), Mohd Shahid (Gold-1980 Moscow), Balbir Singh (Gold-1964 Tokyo; Bronze-1968 Mexico), Dharam Singh Mann ((Gold-1964 Tokyo; Bronze-1968 Mexico), Harbinder Singh (Gold-1964 Tokyo; Bronze-1968 Mexico; 1972 Munich), Gurbux Singh (Gold-1964 Tokyo; Bronze-1968 Mexico), A S Bakshi (Gold-1956 Melbourne), Harpal Kaushik (Gold-1956 Melbourne; 1964 Tokyo; Silver-1960 Rome), Hardayal Singh (Gold-1956 Melbourne), R S Bhola (Gold-1956 Melbourne; Silver- 1960 Rome), Raghbir Lal (Gold-1952 Helsinki; 1956 Melbourne), Jaswant Rajout (Gold-1948 London; 1952 Helsinki), Keshav Dutt (Gold-1948 London; 1952 Helsinki); Leslie Claudius (Gold-1948 London; 1952 Helsinki; 1956 Melbourne), S M Ali Syed (Gold-1964 Tokyo), Charanjit Singh (Gold-1964 Tokyo; Silver-1960 Rome), G Nandy Singh (Gold-1948 London; 1952 Helsinki), Balbir Singh Senior ((Gold-1948 London; 1952 Helsinki; 1956 Melbourne), A S Rana (Gold-1980 Moscow), Allan Sheofield (Gold-1980 Moscow), Darshan Singh (Gold-1964 Tokyo), Gurdev Singh (Gold-1980 Moscow).