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Hockey Belgium on Wednesday slammed the voting system of the FIH 2020-21 awards after none of its’ Tokyo 2020’s Gold winning nominees were adjudged winners of the annual awards in any of the categories. India on Wednesday swept all the FIH awards of the year after producing a stellar performance in both Men’s and Women’s category. While the Indian Men went on to script history as they won a medal at Olympics for the first time after 1980, the women’ s side too produced a remarkable show by taking down some of the top opponents to finish a record 4th.
The winners were chosen from the voting of the 79 National Associations, represented by their respective national captains and coaches who accounted for 50 per cent of the vote share, while fans and players accounted for 25 per cent of votes. The remaining 25 per cent of the votes were chosen from the media.
But nominees from the Belgium Hockey Men’s team and Netherland’s Hockey women’s team, who won Gold medal at Tokyo Olympics 2020 did not win any award as Indian nominees were adjudged winners on vote count.
A Gold medal team with multiple nominees not winning awards, demonstrates failure in voting: Hockey Belgium
After the results were announced by International Federation of Hockey (FIH), Hockey Belgium slammed and criticised the voting system for not choosing any of their Gold winning nominees as winners for the awards. “Hockey Belgium is very disappointed with the outcome of @FIH_Hockey Star Awards. A gold winning team with multiple nominees in all categories but doesn't win a single award demonstrates failure of the voting system,” Hockey Belgium wrote on its official twitter account on Wednesday.
It further added that they would work with FIH to ensure fairer voting system. “We will work with FIH to ensure a fairer system in the future,” the Red Lions added in its tweet. It also stated that the outcome of the results of the FIH awards is not normal. “We fully agree! This is not normal! The credibility and image of our sport is once again facing hard times. It's a pitty (sic) @FIH," stated the Red Lions.
From all the 79 National Associations that voted, 11 out of 25 were from African Member Associations, 29 out of 33 were Asian member associations, 19 out of 42 were from Europe, 3 out of 8 were from Oceania and 17 out of 30 were from Pan America.
Belgium’s Alexander Hendrickx and Arthur van Doren were voted second and third best players of the year, while their country’s goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch was named as second best goalkeeper in men’s category. In women’s list, Netherland’s Eva de Goede and Frederique Matla were named as second and best players of the year.
Indians shine in FIH awards after superb campaign at Olympics 2020
The Indian Hockey stars of Olympics 2020 shined after producing a remarkable performance in the Games. The Men’s won the historic Bronze, ending a 41-year wait at the Olympics, while the women in Blue were similarly brilliant as they defeated the mighty Aussies in the quarterfinals to enter the semi-final for the first time in the Games. The women’s finished a wonderful fourth. Resultantly, Harmanpreet Singh (Best Player, Men), Gurjit Kaur (Best Player, Women), PR Sreejesh (Best Goalkeeper, Men), Savita (Best Goalkeeper, Women), Vivek Sagar Prasad (Rising star, Men) and Sharmila Devi (Rising star, Women) have won the awards in their categories. Moreover, Men’s coach Graham Reid and women’s coach Sjoerd Marijne were also voted as the best coaches of the year.