(Feature Image: Yan Huckendubler)
Only one week remains before voting closes for the 2015 International Hockey Federation Hockey Stars honouring the world’s best field hockey players from the past year.
Two Canadian have been nominated in awards open to public voting.
Goalkeeper David Carter (Vancouver, BC) is up for Goalkeeper of the Year, and midfielder Sukhi Panesar (Surrey, BC) is in the running for Rising Star of the Year.
Canadian Women’s National Team assistant coach Steph Andrew was also nominated for Coach of the Year, the winner of which is decided upon by her peers.
The nominations comes on the heels of what was a monumental year for the Men’s National Team. The Canadian men consistently punched above the weight and ended up qualifying for two top tier tournaments: the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil and the 2015 Hockey World League Final in India.
Carter and Panesar played a large part in Canada’s success, both having played in all of the major tournaments in 2015. Carter’s performance in the World League Semifinal in Argentina, during which Canada upset New Zealand in the quarterfinal to all but guarantee its Olympic spot, was often regarded as the single best performance from a goalkeeper in recent international history.
The video below shows a few highlights from Carter’s year and includes comments from his teammates about just how good he was in 2015.
Voting for the 2015 Hockey Stars awards is open until January 20th: