Savita Punia grew to become the second Indian feminine hockey participant to play 300 matches for nation on Monday.
The Arjuna Awardee achieved this landmark throughout India’s match in opposition to the Netherlands within the FIH Hockey Professional League 2024/25 on the Kalinga Hockey Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Savita now joins Vandana Katariya as considered one of solely two Indian girls to have performed 300 worldwide matches. Savita is barely the second Indian goalkeeper, male or feminine, to realize this feat after the legendary PR Sreejesh.
Savita has been mainstay of the Indian girls’s hockey for the previous decade and has been amongst considered one of most interesting goalkeepers on this planet since his debut on the age of the 20. She performed a key function in India’s historic fourth-place end on the Tokyo Olympics, a marketing campaign that elevated the staff’s stature on the worldwide stage. Her expertise additionally proved invaluable within the Rio Olympics 2016 and the 2018 Vitality Hockey Girls’s World Cup, the place India reached the Quarter-Finals.
Savita additionally donned the captaincy function after the Tokyo Olympics and led India to bronze medal on the 2022 Commonwealth Video games in Birmingham and a title-win on the FIH Nations Cup in 2022. She additionally clinched two consecutive Girls’s Asian Champions Trophy title in 2023 and 2024.
Expressing her feelings on the milestone, Savita mentioned, “Taking part in 300 matches for India is an extremely particular second for me. It has been an unforgettable journey. I’m deeply grateful to Hockey India, Sports activities Authority of India, my household, teammates, and help employees who’ve stood by me all through. Each match sporting the Indian jersey is an honour, and I’ll proceed to offer my greatest for the staff.”
Hailing from Sirsa, Haryana, Savita has got here a good distance from debuting as 20-year-old in 2011 to main the nation on the greatest stage. Her efficiency in opposition to Australia within the quarter-final of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is hailed as top-of-the-line performances by any Indian goalkeeper on the quadrennial occasion.
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