Bengaluru, Sep 7 (IANS): The Indian men's hockey team defender Harmanpreet Singh has been nominated for the FIH Player of the Year Award 2021-22, the same award he won during the FIH Stars Awards ceremony in the 2020-21 edition.

PR Sreejesh (FIH Goalkeeper of the Year Men), Savita (FIH Goalkeeper of the Year Women), Sanjay (FIH Rising Star of the Year Men), Mumtaz Khan (FIH Rising Star of the Year Women), Graham Reid (FIH Men's Team Coach of the Year) and Janneke Schopman (FIH Women's Team Coach of the Year) have also been nominated for the FIH Hockey Star Awards 2021-22.

Harmanpreet, who was part of the bronze medal-winning team at the Asian Champions Trophy Dhaka 2021 and silver medal-winning team at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, said he felt honoured following the nomination.

"It's a huge honour for me to be nominated for the FIH Player of the Year Award yet again. I have always tried to give my best and contribute to the team's success and it feels great when your hard work is recognized through the FIH Star Awards. I would also like to congratulate all the other nominees in the Indian Men's and Women's Teams," said Harmanpreet.

The defender added that the FIH Star Awards nominations show that the Indian teams are growing at a rapid pace. "Last time we swept all the awards and this time we have been nominated for most of them, which shows that we have performed brilliantly over the last two years. The Indian men's and women's teams have grown at a tremendous pace and I feel that we can produce even better results in the future. These are very exciting times for Indian hockey."

Talking about the men's team's immediate goals, Harmanpreet said, "We are eagerly looking forward to our FIH Hockey Pro League 2022-23 matches. We have worked on a few aspects after the end of CWG. Hopefully, we can improve upon our game further and become an even better side. In the last edition of the FIH Hockey Pro League, we finished third. We'll look to better our results in the next edition of the competition."