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Mahindra Scorpio TOISA Fueling Sports episode 5 Savita Punia
Savita Punia (born 11 June 1990) is a member of the India women's national field hockey team. She hails from Haryana and plays as the goalkeeper. She is India's current goalkeeper at the Rio olympics 2016 in Brazil where team india is competing after 36 years. The player has 105 international caps to her credit.
Contents
- Mahindra Scorpio TOISA Fueling Sports episode 5 Savita Punia
- In Conversation with Savita Punia
- Early life
- Career
- Accolades
- References
In Conversation with Savita Punia
Early life
She was born on 11 July 1990 in Jodhkan village, Sirsa, Haryana. She was encouraged by her grandfather Mahinder Singh to take up hockey and joined the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre at Hisar. It was her grandfather Mahinder Singh who encouraged her to take up hockey as a sport. She was coached by Sunder Singh Kharab during her early years.
Career
She has featured in more than 100 games at the international level.
She qualified for the national team in 2007 at a mere age of 17.
2009- She was a part of the Indian hockey team for the Junior Asia Cup.
2013- As part of the Indian team at the Eighth Women’s Asia Cup held in Malaysia in 2013, she saved two crucial saves in the penalty shoot-out and provided India with a bronze medal.
2016- She displayed an excellent performance at the Hockey World League at Belgium where India stood 5th and thus qualified for the Rio Olympics after 36 years.
She performed effectively at the Hawke’s Bay Cup in New Zealand and helped her team finish 6th in the tournament.
Her outstanding performance helped the women's Indian team to beat Chile in the final match of the Womens Hockey World League Round 2.
Accolades
She was awarded the Baljit Singh Goalkeeper of the Year award at the Hockey India Annual Awards in 2015, for having phenomenal performances for India in international contributions which proved her worth as the best goalkeeper in the country. She also received a cash reward of 1 lakh rupees for her contribution to the sports.
At present she has 131 international caps to har credit.