FIH announces Hockey Star Awards nominees

IANS

New Delhi, Nov 12 (IANS) The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has announced the nominees for the 2016 Hockey Stars Awards, the annual prizes recognising the best players, goalkeepers, rising stars, coaches and umpires in a given calendar year.

The announcement was made during the Hockey Revolution Part 2 conference which is currently taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the FIH said in a statement on Saturday.

Five male and five female nominees have been selected for each award. The best player, goalkeeper and rising star awards were selected by a panel consisting of the FIH athletes' committee, continental federations, coaches and media.

All awards are based on performance at international events during the 2016 season, as well as the player's overall contribution to the sport.

Winners will be decided by the combined results of an online vote that is open to the public and a peer vote from international athletes. Voting for best players, goalkeepers and rising stars will open on November 16 and will close on December 2.

The coach of the year nominations, three from each gender, were selected by the FIH high performance and coaching panel, with winners decided by a peer vote.

The 2016 umpire award winners, one male and one female, will be selected by the FIH umpiring committee.

All winners will be announced in January 2017.

The list of nominees:

Best player:

Women: Carla Rebecchi (Argentina), Kate Richardson-Walsh (Britain), Stacey Michelsen (New Zealand), Alex Danson (Britain), Naomi van As (The Netherlands).

Men: Gonzalo Peillat (Argentina), John-John Dohmen (Belgium), Moritz Fürste (Germany), Tobias Hauke (Germany); Pedro Ibarra (Argentina).

Goalkeeper of the year:

Women: Maddie Hinch (Britain), Joyce Sombroek (The Netherlands), Kristina Reynolds (Germany), Jackie Briggs (USA), Belen Succi (Argentina).

Men: Juan Vivaldi (Argentina), Jaap Stockmann (The Netherlands), Vincent Vanasch (Belgium), David Harte (Ireland), Parattu Raveendran Sreejesh (India).

Rising star of the year (U23):

Women: Maria Granatto (Argentina), Lily Owsley (Britain); Nike Lorenz (Germany), Kathryn Slattery (Australia), Florencia Habif (Argentina).

Men: Arthur van Doren (Belgium), Christopher Rühr (Germany), Jorrit Croon (The Netherlands), Harmanpreet Singh (India), Timm Herzbruch (Germany).

Coach of the year:

Women: Alyson Annan (Australia), Karen Brown (Britain), Janneke Schopman (USA).

Men: Carlos Retegui (Argentina), Danny Kerry (Britain), Shane McLeod (Belgium).

--IANS

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