Mumbai: India’s badminton team stole the show during the third edition of 2018 Mahindra Scorpio Times of India Awards (TOISA) on Monday where Kadambi Srikanth, PV Sindhu and their coach Pullela Gopichand were among the winners at the award ceremony, which honored the best sport person, team or coach for Indian sport in 2017.
Kidambi Srikanth’s journey from suffering ankle injury to 4 Super Series titles including Denmark Open, Australia Open, Indonesia Open, and French Open in 2017 was remarkable and played a major role in spreading popular of Badminton in India.
His achievements in 2017 earned him the Sportsperson of the Year, and the male Badminton Player of the Year award.
P.V. Sindhu, currently ranked World No. 4, was also awarded with the female Badminton Player of the Year award after winning two Super Series titles, a silver medal at the Badminton World Championships and as a runner-up at the BWF World Super Series Finals.
Meanwhile, their coach Pullela Gopichand, also won mentor of the year award.
Interestingly, Gopichand’s greatest advice for success to his charges comes from the textbook of his own life. At a press conference in Mumbai last year, the national chief coach said, “When I was playing, I started off not knowing this would be my career for a very long time.”
List of the TOISA winners:
Sportsperson of the year: Kidambi Srikanth
Team of the year: Indian men’s hockey team
Coach of the year: Anil Kumble
Mentor of the Year: Pullela Gopichand
Inspiration of the year: Indian women’s cricket team
Emerging player of the year: Anish Bhanwala
Lifetime achievement: Vijay Amritraj
Para-athlete of the year: Varun Bhati
Archer of the year: Abhishek Verma
Athlete of the year: G Lakshmanan
Badminton player of the year (M & F): Kidambi Srikanth & PV Sindhu
Basketball player of the year: Amjyot Singh Gill
Billiard/snooker player of the year: Pankaj Advani
Boxer of the year: Gaurav Bidhuri
Chess player of the year: Harika Dronavalli
Cricketer of the year (male and female): Jasprit Bumrah & Harmanpreet Kaur
Football player of the year: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
Golfer of the year: Ajeetesh Sandhu
Hockey player of the year (M & F): Harmanpreet Singh & Savita Punia
Shooter of the year (M & F): Ankur Mittal & Heena Sidhu
Squash player of the year: Saurav Ghosal
TT player of the year: Sathiyan Gnansekaran
Tennis player of the year: Rohan Bopanna
Weightlifter of the year: Saikhom Mirabai Chanu
Wrestler of the year: Bajrang Punia
