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| December 18, 2005 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 15, 1426 |
Dutch players sweep hockey awards
CHENNAI, Dec 17: The Netherlands received a boost on the eve of Sunday’s Champions Trophy final against Australia when it bagged both awards for the international field hockey players for 2005.
Seasoned midfielder Teun de Nooijer, 29, was on Saturday voted the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) player of the year while team-mate Robert van der Horst, 22, won the young player award.
The awards, based on a poll among players and coaches at the elite six-nation Champions Trophy here, were announced by FIH president Els van Breda Vriesman.
The title clash on Sunday is a repeat of the Olympics final in Athens last year when Jamie Dwyer’s sudden-death goal helped Australia beat the Dutch to the gold medal.
Nooijer had also won the player of the year award in 2003, making him only the second player after compatriot Stephen Veen to bag field hockey’s most prestigious individual honour twice.
Noojier won the award ahead of nine other nominees: Salman Akbar (Pakistan), V.S. Vinaya (India), Dwyer and Brent Livermore (both Australia), Jeroen Delmee (the Netherlands), Pol Amat and Santiago Freixa (both Spain), German Orozco (Argentina) and Christopher Zeller (Germany).
The nominees for the young player of the year, besides Horst, were Shakeel Abbasi (Pakistan), Mark Knowles (Australia), Sandeep Singh (India) and Lucas Villa (Argentina).—AFP
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