Indian Hockey on a high!

India swept the International Hockey Federationrsquos annual awards on Wednesday claiming all the top honours based on a voting system which was lambasted as a ldquofailurerdquo by menrsquos Olympic champions Belgium prompting the FIH to say that it would try to figure why some associations did not cast their ballotFive Indian players and the head coaches of both the menrsquos and womenrsquos teams in Tokyo claimed the top honours across different categories after fetching the maximum votes The menrsquos hockey team had won a bronze its first in 41 years in the Tokyo Olympics while the womenrsquos side had finished an unprecedented fourth in the showpieceHarmanpreet Gurjit shineHarmanpreet Singh won the menrsquos lsquoPlayer of the Yearrsquo award and Gurjit Kaur was recognised as the best player in the womenrsquos section Veteran PR Sreejesh and Savita Punia won the best goalkeeper awards in the menrsquos and womenrsquos section while young striker Sharmila Devi women and Vivek Sagar Prasad men were adjudged best rising starsGurjit Kaur Player of the Year WomenThe dragflick duo of Harmanpreet and Gurjit were the topscorers in their respective teamrsquos stellar run at the Games Menrsquos team coach Graham Reid and womenrsquos coach Sjoerd Marijne were also voted the best While Reid is still with the team Marijnersquos tenure ended after the Tokyo Games Hockey Belgium reacted sharply to the announcement of the winners and questioned the process as none of their Tokyo Games champions managed to win an awardVotes from National Associationsmdashrepresented by their respective national captains and coachesmdashaccounted for 50 per cent of the overall result while fans and players 25 per cent as well as media 25 per cent made the other half of the votes It is to be noted that only 19 associations from the 42strong European bloc cast their votes compared to 29 out of 33 in AsialdquoHockey Belgium is very disappointed with the outcome of FIH_Hockey Star Awards A gold winning team with multiple nominees in all categories but doesnrsquot win a single award demonstrates failure of the voting system We will work with FIH to ensure a fairer system in the futurerdquo the Belgian association tweetedlsquoThis is not normalrsquoThe sentiment was shared by the teamrsquos official handle as well ldquoWe fully agree This is not normal The credibility and image of our sport is once again facing hard times Itrsquos a pity FIHrdquo stated the Red LionsFollowing Belgiumrsquos objection FIH issued a statement to clarify its stand and promised a review if necessary ldquoAs one can see all winning athletes have topped the standings in each of the three voting groups As always FIH will conduct a review of the FIH Hockey Star Awards and make adjustments wherever deemed necessaryrdquo it saidCheck out all the latest news and updates on IPL 2021This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever