PR Sreejesh and Harmanpreet Singh win Nominations
Indian men’s hockey captain PR Sreejesh has earned a nomination for the 2016 ‘Goalkeeper of the Year’ award of the FIH. Another great news for Indian Hockey team is that Harmanpreet Singh made the grade as one of the 2016 ‘Rising Star of the Year’ nominees.
The nominees for the 2016 Hockey star award were announced during Hockey Revolution Part 2 Conference of the International Hockey Federation (FIH). This conference is currently underway in Dubai. The annual prizes recognizes the best players, goalkeepers, rising stars, coaches and umpires in a given calendar year.
Both these exceptional players have been playing some inspiring hockey over a couple of years. They have also been instrumental in some of India’s difficult wins. Sreejesh made into the junior national team in 2004 and since then has made leaps and bound of progress.
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Early Career
Sreejesh made his debut in the senior national team in 2006, at South Asian Games in Colombo. He was the captain of the team that won the silver medal at the Hero Champions Trophy 2016. This event was held in London. Sreejesh was handed over the responsibilities of the captain of Indian hockey team on 13th July 2016. He has made some stunning saves this year for which he is now in contention to win The Goalkeeper of the Year award.
Harmanpreet gas also been making his presence felt in the hockey circles of India.The Indian Men’s junior hockey team clinched the Men’s Asia Cup title in Malaysia, after beating arch-rivals Pakistan 6-2 in the final. The hero of the day was 19-year-old Harmanpreet Singh, who netted in 4 goals that raised his tally to 15.
Harmanpreet has widely been spoken bout by many experts in the hockey circle thanks to his excellent display. He is being touted to be one of the brightest young stars in Indian hockey today.
Despite these two players making the cut to the nominations there was no Indian nominated in 2016 for ‘Player of the Year’ nominations (both men and women) and in the 2016 ‘Coach of the Year’ nominations (both men and women).
Results
Five players are nominated for each category. The nominations were done on the basis of recommendation of a panel. The panel consisted of FIH Athletes’ Committee, Continental Federations, coaches and media.
Winners for the same will be decided by a combined result of online voting and a peer vote from international athletes. It is expected that the results would be out by January next year.
