Mumbai: India swept the International Hockey Federation's (FIH) annual awards which was announced in Lausanne on Wednesday, claiming the top honours in all the categories based on a system of voting which was lambasted as a failure by men's Olympic champions Belgium.
Gurjit Kaur, Harmanpreet Singh emerged as the best players in women and men respectively. The best keeper award went to Savita for women and PR Sreejesh (mn), while, Sharmila Devi and Vivek Prasad were voted as the best rising stars. The Indian coaches Sjoerd Marijne (women) and Graham Reid (men) grabbed the highest number of votes.
This is the first time that all nominees from India have won the prestigious awards in their respective categories.
India's dragflick sensation Harmanpreet Singh was crowned the 'FIH Player of the Year' in the men's category while women's team dragflicker Gurjit Kaur won the 'FIH Player of The Year'.
Harmanpreet Singh top scorer in India's Bronze medal-winning performance at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, India's famed goalkeeper PR Sreejesh won the 'Goalkeeper of the Year' in the men's category. Women team custodian Savita, on the other hand, won the 'Goalkeeper of the Year' in the women's category.
In the FIH Rising Star of the Year for men, Vivek Sagar Prasad won the award for the second consecutive time.
While all the Indian nominated players did coem back triumphant, even their coaches had their share. Men's hockey chief coach Graham Reid was awarded the FIH Coach of the Year. Former Indian women's hockey chief coach Sjoerd Marijne too was awarded the 'FIH Coach of the Year' for women's team category.
