Top honours for Dohmen, Naomi in FIH awards show
CHANDIGARH: Belgium skipper John-John Dohmen, who guided the team to the silver medal in last year’s Rio Olympics, and Netherlands’ Naomi van As, who was part of the 2016 Games’ silver medal-winning women’s team, were adjudged the international hockey federation (FIH) male and female Player of the Year at the gala FIH hockey stars awards ceremony held here on Thursday.
It’s for the first time that a ceremony was held to honour the best outfield players, goalkeepers, rising stars, coaches and umpires by FIH.
PR Sreejesh, the India skipper and goalkeeper, narrowly missed out. There were two Indians in the fray with Sreejesh among nominees for the best goalkeeper while 20-year-old Harmanpreet Singh, who was part of the junior World Cupwinning squad, was a nominee in the ‘Rising Star of the Year’ category.
Ireland’s David Harte was conferred with the male Goalkeeper-of-the-Year award for the second time in the row. David helped Ireland qualify for the Olympics for the first time ever at Rio. He is the most expensive goalie in the ongoing HIL, retained by Dabang Mumbai.
In the women’s section, Great Britain’s Olympic gold medallist Maddie Hinch, won the ‘Goalkeeper of the Year’ award.
Belgium’s Arthur Van Doren was named the male ‘Rising Star of the Year’ (23 years and under) and Argentina’s Maria Granatto the female Rising Star of the Year. Coach Karen Brown, who guided Great Britain’s women team to gold in Rio was the women’s Coach of the Year award and compatriot Danny Kerry got the honour in the men’s section.
Germany’s Christian Blasch was the Umpire of the Year in the men’s category while Belgium’s Laurine Delforge was named the top umpire among women.
FIH president Narinder Batra, India’s triple Olympic gold medalist Balbir Singh Senior, 1968 Olympics bronze medalist, Col Balbir Singh, and former India skipper Rajpal Singh were present at the function.