The year 2020 has been great so far for the Indian sportswomen. Just a few days after Indian women’s hockey team captain, Rani Rampal, became world’s first hockey player to win World Athlete of the Year award, six-time world champion women’s boxer MC Mary Kom, the first Indian world champion PV Sindhu, Asian and Commonwealth Games gold-winning wrestler Vinesh Phogat, 2018 Asian games silver medalist sprinter Dutee Chand and para-badminton champion.
Mansi Joshi is in the race for the ‘BBC Best Indian Female Player of the Year’ award for the first time. The announcement was made by BBC News head of Indian languages Rupa Jha and Business Development Asia Pacific head Indushekhar Sinha. The BBC’s head of Indian languages Rupa Jha said that the nominated players have been selected by a panel of 40 sports journalists.
The award will be presented on 8 March where the winner will be decided via online voting on the BBC’s six Indian language websites. These elections will be held till February 18.
Vinesh, who is one of the medal prospects at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, had confirmed her ticket for the summer extravaganza in Tokyo by winning a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championship held at Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan. Sindhu, on the other hand, rewrote history as she became the first Indian badminton player to win the World Championship title last year by beating familiar rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.
Mansi Joshi won the gold medal at the Para-Badminton World Championships and Mary Kom, fondly called as magnificent Mary, is the only Indian to win eight medals with six gold at the World Championships. Dutee had won two silver medals at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. She clinched silver medals in the 100 meters and 200 meters.
The BBC Indian Sports Woman of the Year award has been instituted for the first time and the award will be presented to the winning player at a grand ceremony on 8 March. Rupa Jha said that the names of these five nominees have been selected by a 40-member jury of sports journalists, experts, and sportswriters from their volition. The winner will be decided by public speaking and the public voting has started from Monday which will be open till 11 pm on 17 February.
