Sreejesh, Savita Punia voted Goalkeeper of the Year in FIH awards

Laussane: Ace Indian hockey goalkeepers PR Sreejesh and Savita Punia have been awarded the Goalkeeper of the Year at the FIH Star Awards in the women’s and men’s categories respectively for their outstanding performance in important events like the Tokyo Olympic Games, FIH Hockey Pro League among others.

Sreejesh now becomes the third goalkeeper to win back-to-back FIH Goalkeeper of the Year awards. A similar feat was achieved in the past by David Harte (Ireland) who won the award in 2015 and 2016, and Vincent Vanasch (Belgium) who won it three consecutive times from 2017 to 2019.

He finished the voting with 39.9 total points, followed by Belgium’s Loic van Doren who finished second with 26.3 points and Netherlands’ Primin Blaak in third place scoring 23.2 points.

Savita is now only the third athlete to win the Goalkeeper of the Year (women) for consecutive years since the inception of the award in 2014, finishing on top with 37.6 points. Argentina legend Belén Succi received second most points with 26.4, followed by Hockeyroos stalwart Jocelyn Bartam who finished with 16 points.

"No doubt, this is a special award because the hockey fans are voting for us. This is a big honour for me and a testimony to all the hard work. I would also like to thank Hockey India, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, SAI and Odisha Government for all the support they have given us," Sreejesh said.

Sreejesh is currently in SAI Centre, Bengaluru along with his teammates in the Core Probable Group preparing for the FIH Hockey Pro League. He added that awards are always a motivation to excel.

"Winning awards, no matter at what stage in your career you are at, is always a motivating factor. This award surely motivates me to further improve and do well in an all-important year where we will play the FIH Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup Bhubaneswar-Rourkela 2023," said the experienced goalkeeper.

Savita, meanwhile, expressed surprise over her winning the award and said, "This surely is a big surprise and a very pleasant one. I am sure many Indian hockey fans voted for us and I thank each one of them."

The Indian Women's Hockey Captain who is currently in Rajkot, Gujarat, participating in the National Games for her home state Haryana said, "It's great that Mumtaz Khan from our team also won the Rising Player of the Year category. I am sure such recognition will encourage more women to take up the sport and do well." (UNI)