Sportstar on Saturday recognised the stellar run of the Indian Women's Hockey Team and golfer Aditi Ashok at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by awarding them with the 'Breakthrough Performance of the Year' award during the 2022 Aces Awards at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai.
Ashok, who already made history by qualifying for her second successive Olympics, narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth with a 15-under 269 overall after maintaining the second position for the most part of the four rounds played. It turned out to be a memorable year for the 23-year-old with five top 10 finishes, including three on the LPGA tour. She also finished tied third at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational with Thailand’s Pajaree Anannarukarn in the year gone by.
India's Aditi Ashok in action.
Meanwhile, Savita thanked all stakeholders for the upswing in Indian women's hockey. "On behalf of our team we will like to thank Sportstar and jury members. We have received a lot of respect after the Olympic performances. We thank Hockey India, Odisha, SAI and our fans," Savita said.
The Indian women’s hockey may have eventually missed out on a podium finish, suffering a 3-4 loss to 2016 gold medallist Great Britain, but its 1-0 win over three-time Olympic gold medallist Australia in the quarterfinal will be etched in memory forever. It was the first time in Olympic history that the women qualified for the last four and it came via a superb backs-to-the-wall performance against the Aussies. The team achieved its best-ever FIH World Rankings (World No. 8) and bagged FIH Hockey Stars Awards 2021 in all categories.
Recognising their strong show at the Games the Indian government honoured skipper Rani with the Padma Shri, the country's fourth-highest civilian award, while forward Vandana Katariya and midfielder Monika were conferred with the Arjuna award.
