P R Shreejesh and Harmanpreet Singh with Chief Minister of Odisha Mohan Charan Majhi
| Picture Credit score: BISWARANJAN ROUT
Indian males’s hockey workforce captain Harmanpreet Singh and the legendary PR Sreejesh have gained the FIH Participant of the 12 months and Goalkeeper of the 12 months awards for the 12 months 2024.
Each Harmanpreet and Sreejesh acquired the popularity throughout the forty ninth FIH Statutory Congress in Oman on November 9.
Harmanpreet beat the likes of Netherlands duo of Joep de Mol of Netherlands and Thierry Brinkman, Hannes Muller of Germany and Zach Wallace of England to bag the highest award.
Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh led the scoring charts on the Paris Olympics with 10 targets, together with targets within the quarterfinal, semi-final and each targets within the bronze medal match in opposition to Spain, which India gained 2-1 to safe their second consecutive podium end on the Olympics.
Double Olympic medallist Sreejesh, who stop the sport after the Paris Olympics, prevailed over Netherlands’ Pirmin Blaak, Luis Calzado of Spain, Jean-Paul Danneberg of Germany and Argentina’s Tomas Santiago to win the highest prize in goalkeepers class.
Harmanpreet was additionally a vital cog within the Indian workforce that had damaged their 41-year podium drought on the Tokyo Olympics with a bronze medal. He has beforehand gained the FIH Participant of the 12 months award on two events in 2020-21 and 2021-22 however the third one may simply be essentially the most valuable, because it got here after he led his nation to an Olympic medal — a bronze in Paris — in his first try, following his appointment as captain in 2023.
“First off, I wish to thank FIH for this nice honour. After the Olympics it was so nice to return residence and have such big crowds there to greet us and welcome us. It was a really very particular feeling. I wish to point out my teammates, none of this is able to have been attainable with out you all,” Harmanpreet stated.
“Particular because of Hockey India as properly for at all times giving us each alternative to succeed in any respect ranges. My spouse and daughter are right here immediately and receiving this award in entrance of them means the world to me. So thanks to everybody who made that attainable!” Sreejesh, in the meantime, introduced an finish to his stellar profession on the Paris Olympics, including a second Olympic medal to his trophy cupboard.
Like Harmanpreet, Sreejesh additionally gained his third FIH Goalkeeper of the 12 months award, having beforehand gained the award in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Sreejesh introduced the curtains down on his profession on the highest degree, placing collectively an unimaginable Olympic marketing campaign that included a monumental efficiency in India’s quarterfinal win over Nice Britain, the place they performed a lot of the match with 10 gamers.
“I’m so pleased immediately. Thanks for this final taking part in honour of my taking part in profession. As most individuals know, Paris 2024 was the final event I performed for my nation and I simply wish to thank Hockey India for all of the assist and steering supplied over all of the years I’ve performed the game,” Sreejesh stated.
“This award fully belongs to my workforce, the defence who made certain most assaults by no means bought to me, and the midfielders and forwards who coated up my errors by scoring extra targets than I conceded,” he added.
The opposite winners of FIH awards had been Yibbi Jansen of Netherlands (Girls’s Participant of the 12 months), Ye Jiao of China (Girls’s Goalkeeper of the 12 months), Pakistan’s Sufyan Khan (Males’s Rising Star of the 12 months), Zoe Diaz of Argentina (Girls’s Rising Star of the 12 months), Jeroen Delmee of Netherlands (Males’s Coach of the 12 months), Alyson Annan (Girls’s Coach of the 12 months), Steve Rogers of Australia (Males’s Umpire of the 12 months), Sarah Wilson of Scotland (Girls’s Umpire of the 12 months).
Printed – November 09, 2024 11:16 am IST