Indian Women’s Hockey team captain Rani Rampal on Thursday won The World Games Athlete of the Year award.
Rampal, who received a whopping 1,99,477 votes, will receive a trophy and prize money from the official sponsors of the award.
With this feat, Rampal becomes the first Indian athlete to win the award.
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The World Games’ Twitter handle wrote: “Huge congratulations to The World Games Athlete of the Year: Hockey star Rani ! Rani won the race with a massive number of votes: 199,477! She will receive a trophy & a prize from the official sponsor @ProtectiveLife #TheWorldGamesAOTY @FIH_Hockey @hockeyindia @imranirampal.”
Huge congratulations to The World Games Athlete of the Year: Hockey star Rani 🇮🇳! Rani won the race with a massive number of votes: 199,477! She will receive a trophy & a prize from the official sponsor @ProtectiveLife🏆 #TheWorldGamesAOTY @FIH_Hockey @hockeyindia @imranirampal pic.twitter.com/gNfbpMq2Ze
— The World Games (@TheWorldGames) January 30, 2020
For the award, Rampal had competed with other 24 nominees.
Hockey India congratulated Rampal for winning the prestigious award.
SHE’S DONE IT!🙌🥳@imranirampal is the World Games Athlete of the Year 2019!
We congratulate our skipper and wish her more success along the way and thank all the supporters for making this possible! 🇮🇳🏑#IndiaKaGame pic.twitter.com/WCETKIWS6G
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) January 30, 2020
Rampal thanked The World Games for the recognition and said that she dedicates this award to the entire hockey fraternity, the team, her coaches and the country.
Highly thankful to each one of you for all the love & support that you have showered on me.Truly blessed & grateful on winning such a prestigious award ‘World Games Athlete of the Year 2019’. Spl. thanks to @FIH_Hockey for nominating me. Thank u @TheHockeyIndia @KirenRijiju sir
— Rani Rampal (@imranirampal) January 30, 2020
Rampal had also been shortlisted for the prestigious Padma Shri award. She is one among the six recipients from the category of sports to be conferred with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India. She has over 200 International caps for India.
Rampal’s contribution was significant in India’s Silver Medal win in the Asia Cup in 2009. At 15, she was the youngest member of the Indian Team that participated at the 2010 Women’s Hockey World Cup in Argentina where she struck a splendid seven goals.
Under her captaincy, India created history as they won the Women’s Asia Cup in 2017 and earned direct qualification for the FIH Women’s World Cup in 2018. In 2019, under her captaincy, the Indian team won the FIH Women’s Series Final in Hiroshima, Japan.
(With ANI inputs)