R Rampal bags The World Games Athlete of the Year award

Indian Women's Hockey team captain R Rampal on Thursday won The World Games Athlete of the Year award.

Rampal, who received whopping 199,477 votes, will receive a trophy and prize money from the official sponsors of the award.

The World Games' Twitter handle wrote: "Huge congratulations to The World Games Athlete of the Year: Hockey star R ! R won the race with a massive number of votes: 199,477! She will receive a trophy & a prize from the official sponsor @ProtectiveLife #TheWorldGamesAOTY @FIH_Hockey @hockeyindia @imrrampal."

For the award, Rampal had competed with other 24 nominees.

Also, Rampal had been shortlisted for the prestigious Padma Shri award. She is one among the six recipients from the category of sports to be conferred with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India. She has over 200 International caps for India.

Rampal's contribution was significant in India's Silver Medal win in the Asia Cup in 2009. At 15, she was the youngest member of the Indian Team that participated at the 2010 Women's Hockey World Cup in Argentina where she struck a splendid seven goals.

Under her captaincy, India created history as they won the Women's Asia Cup in 2017 and earned direct qualification for the FIH Women's World Cup in 2018. In 2019, under her captaincy, the Indian team won the FIH Women's Series Final in Hiroshima, Japan.

( With inputs from ANI )