Champion Rani

The magician of the hockey field, Rani Rampal won the prestigious ‘World Games Athlete of The Year’ award on Thursday, becoming the first-ever hockey player to receive this accolade.

The lady, who has also been conferred Padma Shri Award this year, won the World Game award after 20 days of polling by the sports fans. Rani won the race by garnering 199,477 votes worldwide.

The moment her victory was announced, the International Hockey Federation congratulated the player on the official social media account.

Congratulations @imranirampal for becoming the first ever Hockey athlete to win the prestigious @TheWorldGames Athlete of the Year award! 👏🏑@TheHockeyIndia https://t.co/5K29Z5xmQ0

— International Hockey Federation (@FIH_Hockey) January 30, 2020

Soon Rani’s social media handle got flooded with congratulatory messages, post which the champion wrote a gratitude note that reads: “Highly thankful to each one of you for all the love & support that you have showered on me.Truly blessed & grateful on winning such a prestigious award ‘World Games Athlete of the Year 2019’. Spl. thanks to @FIH_Hockey for nominating me. Thank u @TheHockeyIndia @KirenRijiju sir”.

Highly thankful to each one of you for all the love & support that you have showered on me.Truly blessed & grateful on winning such a prestigious award ‘World Games Athlete of the Year 2019’. Spl. thanks to @FIH_Hockey for nominating me. Thank u @TheHockeyIndia @KirenRijiju sir

— Rani Rampal (@imranirampal) January 30, 2020

Currently, Rani Rampal is all set to amaze the world with her brilliant field execution in this year’s Tokyo Olympics. Under her leadership, the Indian National Women’s Hockey team has qualified for the Olympics for the third time while bagging a silver in the Asian Games 2018.