Hardik Singh – The illustrious midfielder of Indian Men’s Hockey, has once again proved his efforts and fruits of relentless diligence by achieving the award of highly coveted Player of the Year at the 5th Hockey India Annual Awards 2022.
The Olympic bronze medalist, Hardik Singh, spoke during a popular podcast called “Hockey Te Charcha” and discussed his journey candidly and took the listeners to his life journey and highs and lows.
He mentioned that he was withdrawn from the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup, 2023, held at Bhubaneswar- Rourkela, unfortunately, due to an injury. Despite the serious injury, Singh carried forward his dedication to the sport.
During the podcast, he also stated that he never expected to win this award but also believes that his efforts and hard work have paid the price and resulted in this award.
Indian Midfielder Hardik, a 24-year-old athlete, expressed that he is deeply inspired by the award, which motivates him further to continue impressive performances on the field.
A prestigious award of Hockey Balbir Singh Sr. was also presented to him in March 2023 for becoming the Player of the Year 2022 at the Hockey India Annual Awards distributing ceremony held in New Delhi in its fifth edition.
He recalled that his motivation to win the award was connected with back 2019 when he saw Indian Skipper Manpreet Singh, who led India in a historical triumph during the Tokyo Olympics and finished the tournament with a bronze medal.
After the instance, Singh committed himself to daily improvements and conditioning with hard training sessions helpful for him in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Hockey World Cup 2023. He further cited that such awards and recognition works as a significant motivator for a player, which inspires them to work hard and bring glory to the nation.
While receiving the award, he also expressed his deepest gratitude to the award’s jury and Hockey India and emphasized the significance of prize distribution, which ignites the spirit among the players, whether junior or senior.
He added that he received the award in the presence of Hocket Legends such as Gurbaksh Singh, Dhanraj Pillay, along with Harcharan Singh. He said that these legends have pushed him to work hard in his career to achieve success.
He is committed towards continuous improvement and keeps trying new training regimes by leaving his comfort zone. He also stressed that he was disappointed when he was dropped at the Hockey World Cup 2023 due to an injury and called it a setback, despite which he did not accept the defeat and kept a positive attitude and made a strong comeback.
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