The Indian Women Hockey has got a boost with the International Hockey Federation nominating Rani Rampal, the captain of Indian Women Hockey team for the “World Games Athlete of the Year”. Twenty five sports persons have been nominated for this year’s award and the Hockey federation had nominated Rani Rampal taking into her outstanding performance.
Hearing the news, President of Hockey India Mushtaque Ahmad said that they were elated to hear that the World Hockey Federation had nominated Rani Rampal. He also said that Rani was an inspiration to many of the upcoming players in the country.
The winner of World Games Athlete of the Year is decided by voting and the last date for voting is January 30. Gymnastics couple Mariia Chemova and Georgi Pataraia were the winners last year.
Born on December 4, 1994, Rani Rampal is from Shahabad Markanda in Kurukshetra district of Haryana. She started training in Hockey in 2003 at the Shahabad Hockey Academy. She had her training under Dronacharya recipient Baldev Singh. At the age of 14, she made into the senior level debut. She was also part of the Indian Hockey team that qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics. The Indian team had qualified after 36 years for the event.
She had contributed much to the winning of silver medal by the Indian team in the 2009 Asian Cup. She had also represented the Indian team in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, 2010 Asian Games, and 2010 Women’s Hockey World Cup. In the World Hockey Cup in 2010, she scored seven goals that had placed Indian in the ninth position in World Women’s Hockey table. She also has the distinction of being the only woman player to be nominated for the FIH Women’s Young Player Award, 2010.
Rani Rampal had won many awards and is also the recipient of Arjuna Award.
