Feels great when hardwork is recognised: Star defender Harmanpreet on FIH nomination

Star defender Harmanpreet Singh on Wednesday termed his nomination for this year's FIH Player of the Year Award as a huge honour and a recognition of his hard work put in all these years for the national hockey team. Harmanpreet who was part of the silver medal-winning team at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this year also won bronze at the Asian Champions Trophy Dhaka in 2021, won the top award and his first in the 2020-21 edition.

"It's a huge honour for me to be nominated for the FIH Player of the Year Award yet again. I have always tried to give my best and contribute to the team's success and it feels great when your hard work is recognized through the FIH Star Awards," Harmanpreet was quoted as saying in a press release. "I would also like to congratulate all the other nominees in the Indian Men's and Women's Teams," he added.

The 26-year-old joins a host of other Indian hockey players from the men's and women's teams, including coaches of the respective teams for the prestigious award in various categories.

Some of the big names are PR Sreejesh ('Goalkeeper of the Year Men), Savita ('Goalkeeper of the Year' Women), Sanjay ('Rising Star of the Year Men), Mumtaz Khan ('Rising Star of the Year' Women), Graham Reid ('Coach of the Year Men), and Janneke Schopman ('Coach of the Year' Women). Harmanpreet shed light on the fact that hockey players from

India getting nominated quite often for the top awards indicates that sport in the country has significantly improved over the last couple of years and is also witnessing rapid growth. "Last time we swept all the awards and this time we have been nominated for most of them, which shows that we have performed brilliantly over the last two years. "The Indian Men's and Women's Teams have grown at a tremendous pace and I feel that we can produce even better results in the future. These are very exciting times for Indian hockey," Harmanpreet said.

The Punjab man also emphasised that performing well in the upcoming FIH Hockey Pro League is a prime target to make further improvements as a team. "We are eagerly looking forward to our FIH Hockey Pro League 2022-23 matches. We have worked on a few aspects after the end of CWG," Harmanpreet said. "Hopefully, we can improve upon our game further and become an even better side. In the last edition of the FIH Hockey Pro League, we finished third. We'll look to better our results in the next edition of the competition," he said.