Rani lone Indian in race for FIH awards

Fifteen-year-old Rani Rampal is the only Indian to be nominated for any of the FIH awards this year. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced the list for various Player of the Year categories on Thursday with Rani in the fray for the Young Women’s Player of the Year award.

Others in the list include Australia’s Casey Eastham, re-nominated after having won the award in 2009, Argentina’s Daniela Sruoga and China’s Zhao Yudiao.

Nominations in the senior men’s category include Australian captain Jamie Dwyer, English captain Barry Middleton, Moritz Furste of Germany, Teun de Nooijer of The Netherlands and Jong Ho Seo of Korea. Both Dwyer and De Nooijer have already won the award four times each.

Argentina captain Luciana Aymar is favourite to win in the senior women’s category, alongwith Dutch Maartje Paumen, while England’s Ashley Jackson and Germany’s Florian Fuchs are in the race among the young men.