The national level umpire Durga Thakur has been promoted to International outdoor Umpire by the Federation of International Hockey. She appeared lastly as an Indian national level umpire at Hawkes Bay Cup held at Hastings, New Zealand where her performance attracted FIH officials. And this made the International body to promote her to international outdoor level.
Durga, as an umpire first appeared for the 3rd Hockey India Sub-Junior Men & Women National Championship (Finals) held at Bhopal in 2013.
Durga Thakur has been a national level player in three sports viz Handball, Basketball & Hockey. After having a decent outing as a sportsperson, she migrated to other domain when she went for graduation at Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports. Once graduated, she got her first international appearance in 2015 at the double 6-Nation Cup in Breda, Netherlands. She’s currently working as a Physical Education teacher at Modern School, New Delhi and she was one of the umpires in the finals of the last National Games.
There are 14 Indian Umpires already officiating at the international level and Durga Thakur will add up to make it 15 now. The other international umpires are
The Secretary General, Hockey India, Mohd. Mushtaque Ahmad, congratulated her, and said, “It is an extremely proud moment for us at Hockey India, to have added another name to the list of International Umpires.”
“We have a dedicated professional and upward moving Indian women team. Durga is young, passionate and very committed to her job. We are proud of her achievements and congratulate her on her promotion. Good luck for the future,” he further added.
Thakur is an addition to a crop of young Indian umpires currently officiating at the international level. The list now has 15 Indians in the elite league of International umpires (10 Men, 5 women) which also includes names like Raghu Prasad RV, Anupama Puchimanda, Biswaranjan Sarangi & Nepoleon Roy.