"Biggest achievement of life but plenty more to come": Harmanpreet Singh

Being happy to become a Khel Ratna awardee after a stellar performance at the Paris Olympics 2024 Indian mens hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh said that it is an honour to his journey which he still has plenty more to achieveDouble Olympicmedallist shooter Manu Bhaker chess world champion D Gukesh Harmanpreet and Paralympic high jump goldwinner Praveen Kumar were finalised for the 2024 Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award by the sports ministry on ThursdayIts the biggest recognition of my life Its a big achievement for me I am really very happy It think its the best part of my life that I am getting such a huge award and recognition the 28yearold Harmanpreet Kaur who was Indias top goalscorer in the Paris Games with 10 strikes told PTI in an interviewHarmanpreet Singh has won many important awards in his career It includes backtoback Olympic bronze medals a Junior World Cup gold in 2016 a Commonwealth Games silver an Asian Games gold and bronze besides two silver medals in the Champions TrophyHarmanpreet Singh has also been honoured with the FIH Player of the Year award three times so far But the Indian skipper is far from satiatedAlso ReadWill it be tough to see Rohit Sharma in Indian jersey beyond Champions TrophyThroughout my journey I have learnt a lot I have seen a lot of ups and downs including wins and losses But I think you only learn from those experiences From day one my mindset has been how to improve myself said the star player who was born into a family of farmers in Amritsars Timmowal village and whose international career began in 2014Indeed a team man Harmanpreet Singh credited his fellow teammates for helping him shine individuallyWhatever we are achieving we are achieving as a team The journey has been very fascinating I am getting individual recognitions and awards but only because of my teammatesI have enjoyed my journey a lot till date I have put on a lot of hard work and I am happy with what I have achieved till date he saidHarmanpreet Singh is now eyeing a medal in the World Cup which will be held in Belgium next yearMy main target of course will be the World Cup because its been long that we havent won a medal in World Cup But its not like that you have achieved everything in life he saidWe have won backtoback medals in Olympics but our next target would be to win the gold and win all major tournaments Its a step by step process and we would like to achieve our targets as a team he saidAlthough the retirement stage is still a few years shy the Indian skipper made it clear that he would always remain associated with the game even after drawing curtains on his careerWorld Cup Asian Games and Olympics gold medals which are missing The hunger is still there and when I retire I would like to pass on that drive to the new kids because you cant stay away from hockey Hockey is always in our heart and will remain there he saidWhenever the calls comes to me in any capacity I will be there to give back to the game he saidHarmanpreet is currently leading Punjabs Soorma Hockey Club at the ongoing Hockey India League in Rourkela Soorma Hockey Club has so far played two matches winning one and losing oneIt is going to be tough for every team initially to gel together and get that understanding build connections We lost yesterdays match but we did a lot of good things in thatWe can improve our combinations We will analyse what mistakes we did Its just the start of the league long way to go he said of the event that has been restarted after a sevenyear gapWith PTI Inputs