Lalremsiami is 2019 FIH Women’s Rising Star
NEW DELHI: At the FIH Series Finals in Hiroshima last June, the Indian women’s hockey team had qualified for the semi-finals in their quest to find a berth at the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers. A loss would have meant India’s road to Tokyo would have come to an end.
Tragically for Lalremsiami, her father died ahead of that crucial semi-final against Chile. The 19-year-old decided against returning home. Despite the grief, the striker stayed on and made sure that India not just won the semis but also beat Asian Games champions and hosts Japan in the final. “I wanted to make my father proud. I wanted to stay, play and make sure India qualified,” she had said then.
Such resolve and determination helped Lalremsiami perform brilliantly throughout 2019 for which she became the first Indian to win the FIH Women’s Rising Star of Year award late on Tuesday.
The forward took the prize ahead of Argentine Julieta Jankunas and Dutch Frederique Matla.
“I am very honoured to win this award. This is a big moment for me and I thank everyone who voted for me to win this award,” said Lalremsiami, who was part of the India U-18 team that won a silver at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. “This comes as a big motivation for me to do well. I would also like to thank my teammates who stood by me during my personal struggles.”
Affectionately called ‘Siami’, the striker got the award from India skipper Rani Rampal, who also happens to be Siami’s closest friend on the team and her roommate. Rampal is the only other Indian to have been nominated for the award (thrice).
Hailing from a small agricultural community in Mizoram, a teenage Lalremsiami left home to join a hockey academy at Thenzawl, 150km away. When it came to international recognition, she first came into wider focus at the 2018 Women’s World Cup where she was one of the stand-out players. Since then she has been a regular member of the team.
“Hockey is not very famous in my village; very few people played the sport. However, I was always interested in playing hockey so I had to move to Thenzawl, which was very far from my village so I had to move into their hostel in my early teenage years,” she was quoted as saying by Olympic Channel. Since making her debut in 2017 in a test series against Belarus, Lalremsiami has twice in her short senior career been a top goal-scorer—in a test series against South Korea in 2017 and against Spain in 2019.
At the Ready Steady Tokyo event, in August 2019, she scored the winning goal in the final against Japan. Later that year, in the FIH Series Finals and later at the Olympic qualifiers against USA Lalremsiami made more telling contributions—her creativity helped put the opposition defence under pressure, allowing Rampal to score the decisive goal that sent India to Tokyo.