Hockey India Awards: India’s young midfielder Hardik Singh grabbed the spotlight at the 5th Annual Hockey India Annual Awards. The young midfielder won the prestigious Men’s Hockey Player of the year award during the ceremony that took place in New Delhi on Friday, 17th March 2023. The 24-year old endured a roller-coaster ride in the last 12 months. He suffered an untimely injury during the World Cup earlier this year and was forced to pull out of the event. In an exclusive interview to InsideSport on Friday, he shared his thought on receiving the award, spoke about his world cup injury and much more. Follow Hockey News and LIVE updates on InsideSport.IN
Hockey India Awards: Hardik Singh elated after winning Men’s Player of the year award, says next focus is on winning gold medal in Asian Games 2023 – Check Out
Hardik Singh and Savita win the Hockey India Balbir Singh Sr. Award for Player of the Year 2022
🔸The annual awards were held in New Delhi to honour Hockey stars and legends@TheHockeyIndia @tapasjournalist pic.twitter.com/IFHU7fI7KY
— DD India (@DDIndialive) March 17, 2023
The Hockey India awards were held after a gap of three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Hardik, who is currently the vice-captain of the Indian side was adjudged as the Men’s Player of the year award for 2022. On receiving the honour, he said, “It is a great feeling. However, it is a team game so I would like to give credit to the whole team. ”
He suffered an untimely hamstring injury during the Group stages of the Hockey World Cup earlier this year. It forced him to withdraw from the tournament. He has however recovered and made his comeback to the side for the recent Hockey Pro League matches.
Speaking about his injury, he said, “Injuries are part of the job. Any injury brings a low time in the life of an athlete. I was feeling very low as the opportunity to play in the World Cup do not come too many times. The tournament did not go the way team wanted it to go. Now our focus is fully on the Asian Games.”
Asian Games is scheduled to be held in September later this year. India bagged bronze medal in the last edition in 2018. The Men in Blue are now aiming for the top spot in the podium. However before the event, India is set to welcome new coach Craig Fulton. The South African helped Belgium lift the 2018 Hockey World Cup.
Hardik is looking forward to play under Fulton. “He has a lot of experience as a coach. He can bring so much of quality to the team using his experience. All the players are very excited to play under him. He is coming next month.”
Before the Asian Games, India is set to tour England and Netherlands for Hockey Pro League matches. “We will experiment a few things during the Pro League as the Asian Games is our main target. Before making our main strategy we will have some experiments done by the coach. Having reached the podium at the Olympics, we believe then we can top the podium at the Asian Games.”
Meanwhile, India’s former skipper Manpreet Singh also echoed Hardik’s statement about the new coach. “All the players are very excited to play under him. We all have heard a lot about him. It will be interesting to see what will be his plans for future,” he said.
India will next face Belgium in the next leg of the Hockey Pro League on 26th May 2023. Apart from Belgium, India will also face Great Britain in this leg of the tournament.
Hockey India Awards: Hardik Singh elated after winning Men’s Player of the year award, says next focus is on winning gold medal in Asian Games 2023 – Check Out
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