FIH Awards: Gurjit Kaur, Harmanpreet Singh bag top honours as India dominate the show

Team India showed their dominance in the International Hockey Federation's (FIH) Hockey Stars Awards 2020-21 on Wednesday, October 6. Drag-flickers Harmanpreet Singh and Gurjit Kaur won the men’s and women’s Player of the Year awards. Savita Punia and PR Sreejesh won the awards respectively for the women’s and men’s Goalkeeper of the Year.

Vivek Prasad and Sharmila Devi won the award for the Rising Star in the men’s and women’s categories respectively. Sjoerd Marijne and Graham Reid also received the honours for the best coaches in the women’s and men’s categories respectively. Even as Reid is still serving as the men’s coach, Marijne bid adieu to the women’s team after the Tokyo Olympics.

The awards were cancelled last year due to the global outbreak of the COVID pandemic. As per the FIH, the nomination process covered the period from January 2020 until the end of the Tokyo Olympics, which ended two months ago in August.

FIH Awards: 79 National Associations vote for the Hockey awards

"The voting process started on 23 August and concluded on 15 September 2021. Votes from National Associations - represented by their respective national captains and coaches - counted for 50 per cent of the overall result, while fans and players (25 per cent), as well as media (25 per cent), made the other half of the votes," the FIH was quoted as saying in PTI.

"In all, 79 National Associations voted (Africa: 11 out of 25 Member Associations; Asia: 29 out of 33; Europe: 19 out of 42; Oceania: 3 out of 8; Pan America: 17 out of 30), said a statement from FIH. And with a record number of almost 300,000 fans casting their votes, fan participation in the FIH Hockey Stars Awards has been exceptional," the statement added.

Both Indian hockey men’s and women’s punched above their weights in the Games. The men’s team, led by Manpreet Singh, helped India bag their first Olympic medal in 41 years after beating Germany 5-4 in the Bronze Medal match. The women’s team, captained by Rani Rampal, helped India finished fourth. In the quarterfinal, they defied all the odds as they defeated Australia 1-0. It was also the first time when the women’s team qualified for the Olympic semi-final.

(Image: SAI Media/@Twitter/@TheHockeyIndia)