With just a few hours to go for the 2022 edition of the Sportstar Aces Awards, former Indian men’s hockey team captain and Olympic gold medallist MM Somaya, who is part of the six-member Jury, recalled Indian hockey’s historic achievements in the year 2021. While the men’s team ended a 41-year Olympic medal drought by clinching the bronze, the women’s team inspired the country with their historic fourth-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Sharing his thoughts on the success of Indian hockey, Somaya said, “It was a very special moment because we have been playing well for many years in many tournaments. We played well in many Olympics before, came close, but never actually got a medal right from 1980. In 1980 we were fortunate that it was a little bit of a depleted field, so winning a medal in a field that was fully representative, where you had all the leading countries participating, made this quite a different achievement. I think the fitness level of players that I saw was so good that it carried them right through the tournament. I think there was very little to choose especially in the men’s teams between the bronze medallist and the finalists Australia and Belgium. So I think it delighted all of us, especially the former hockey players.”
“Also, the women’s hockey team, in the last Olympics at Rio, failed miserably, finishing at the end of the table, but in this Olympics, they raised the bar. It was really sad that they eventually had to settle for fourth place. Here again, I think the fitness levels and the skillsets were the improvements that our women’s team were able to show, and I am certain that going ahead they will establish themselves in the world hockey rankings in future,” added Somaya, who was part of 1980 gold medal-winning team.
Speaking about his role as the Jury member of Sportstar Aces Awards, the three-time Olympian said, “Judging athletes who have performed exceptionally well in 2021 is an honour, and it is wonderful to be on an illustrious panel.” He further added, “This year was special because it’s the year that Indian sports has come of age. We’ve always been doing well in cricket, we had another splendid year in cricket this year, but the Olympics actually put us at a different level. We normally would expect a medal in hockey, although for many years we didn’t get it. This year we observed that across all disciplines, be it boxing, weightlifting and even athletics – probably in our lifetime we never expected we would get a gold medal in athletics, where Neeraj Chopra was able to do that this time, so I think Olympics showed India in a different light.”
When asked about the difficulties of choosing the winner for the annual awards Somaya said, “Every year it gets more difficult and this year because of the Olympics and so many medals that came in. I think this was probably the most difficult year we had judged to identify one single winner in each category, which was quite a job.”
“We tried to cover all Olympic medallists because we felt that winning a medal in the Olympics, that too in the pandemic time, was extraordinary. I think the athletes have worked very hard, so that was the first thing the committee looked at. The other thing was consistency, so these were the two main criteria that we looked at while deciding the winners this year,” he added while talking about the process of selecting winners.
Speaking about his expectations from Indian sports in the future, the Indian hockey legend said, “What I look for in our athletes is to better their performances from what they have done before. They may not be winning all the medals again, but as long as they better their performances and come closer, even if they dont achieve the world standards, that is something I am going to look for.”
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