Midfielder Hardik Singh and goalkeeper Savita Punia have been conferred with the lads’s and ladies’s Indian ‘Hockey Player of the Year awards at a glittering ceremony on Friday.
The 24-year-old Hardik beat his illustrious senior players like Manpreet Singh and Harmanpreet Singh to win the coveted award for 2022 named after hockey legend Balbir Singh senior at the fifth Hockey India Annual Awards.
Hardik was the most impressive player for India in the FIH World Cup held in Odisha in January before he was ruled out of the tournament due to a hamstring injury he suffered during the second-group match against England.
He had scored a goal in India’s 2-0 win over Spain within the first match. India had made a shock exit from the World after dropping to Spain within the pre-quarterfinals.
Savita had led India to the FIH Girls’s Nation’s Cup title in December final to e-book a berth within the FIH Girls’s Professional League.
FILE PHOTO: Indian girls’s hockey staff captain Savita Punia.
| Photograph Credit score: BISWARANJAN ROUT
Hardik and Savita obtained Rs 25 lakh every, together with a trophy. The whole prize cash for the wards was over Rs 2.7 crore.
“It’s been a fantastic year, and it feels great to be recognised for my efforts,” Hardik stated.
“I believe we had a roller coaster year as a team, and there are players who have done exceptionally well this year as well. I honestly feel that I am accepting this honour on behalf of the entire team. To be honest, I am speechless; this is a tremendous honour. We performed admirably as a team, and winning the inaugural FIH Women’s Nations Cup was a watershed moment for all of us,” Savita stated.
Hockey India additionally gave away awards for 2021 because it couldn’t be held resulting from post-COVID-19 difficulties.
Member of the 1964 Olympics gold-winning staff, Gurbux Singh received the distinguished Hockey India Main Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022 for his excellent contribution to the game of hockey.
The award carries Rs 30 lakh and a trophy.
Joint captain of the bronze-winning Indian staff on the 1968 Mexico Olympics, Gurbax additionally led the nationwide staff to the gold medal on the 1966 Asian Video games.
Amit Singh Bakshi, who was a part of the Indian staff that received the gold medal on the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, obtained the corresponding award for 2021.
Present nationwide staff captain Harmanpreet was named the perfect defender for 2022.
Savita additionally received the ladies’s participant of the 12 months 2021 award whereas Harmanpreet was named within the males’s corresponding class.
Krishan B Pathak was named the perfect goalkeeper for 2022 whereas Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam of the ladies’s nationwide staff was conferred with the perfect midfielder award.
Hockey India Dhanraj Pillay Award for Ahead of the 12 months 2022 was given to Vandana Katariya of the ladies’s nationwide staff.
Every of them pocketed Rs 5 lakh, together with a trophy.
Mumtaz Khan received the Asunta Lakra Award for upcoming girls’s participant of the 12 months for 2022, whereas the lads’s corresponding honour within the title Jugraj Singh was obtained by Uttam Singh In the meantime.
The Indian girls’s staff that received gold on the FIH Girls’s Nations Cup in Spain in December final was additionally felicitated through the ceremony with every participant successful Rs 2 lakh, whereas the teaching employees was introduced with Rs 1 Lakh every.
The Indian junior males’s staff that received gold on the Sultan of Johor Cup 2022 was felicitated with every participant incomes Rs 2.00 lakh every and the teaching employees receiving Rs 1.00 lakh every.
Union Legislation Minister Kiren Rijiju was among the many dignitaries who gave away the awards within the early a part of the perform. Union Sports activities Minister Anurag Thakur in addition to Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar introduced the awards to the gamers later within the day.
