New Delhi, Jan 3 (PTI) Elated to become a Khel Ratna awardee after his career-defining Olympic performance, Indian men's hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh said the honour is a recognition of his "fascinating" journey in which he still has plenty more to achieve.

Double Olympic-medallist shooter Manu Bhaker, chess world champion D Gukesh, Harmanpreet and Paralympic high jump gold-winner Praveen Kumar were finalised for the 2024 Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award by the sports ministry on Thursday.

Also Read | Rohit Sharma to Get Sacked From ODI Captaincy Ahead of ICC Champions Trophy 2025? Hardik Pandya’s Name Emerges As Prime Candidate to Replace Star Indian Cricketer As Team India Skipper: Report.

"(It's the) biggest recognition of my life. It's a big achievement for me. I am really very happy. It think it's the best part of my life that I am getting such a huge award and recognition," the 28-year-old Harmanpreet, who was India's top goal-scorer in the Paris Games with 10 strikes, told PTI in an interview.

The ace drag-flicker has won most of the prominent awards and accolades in his career, including back-to-back 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 Trophy.

Also Read | Stress Fractures in Sport: When Stressed Bones Fight Back.

Harmanpreet has also claimed the FIH Player of the Year award three times, including the year gone by. But he is far from satiated.

"Throughout 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 Amritsar's Timmowal village and whose international career began in 2014.

A team-man to the core, Harmanpreet credited his fellow players for making it possible for him to shine individually.

"Whatever 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 teammates.

"I 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 said.

The defender is now eyeing a medal in the World Cup when the event is held in Belgium next year.

"My main target of course will be the World Cup because it's been long that we haven't won a medal in World Cup. But it's not like that you have achieved everything in life," he said.

"We have won back-to-back medals in Olympics but our next target would be to win the gold and win all major tournaments. It's a step by step process and we would like to achieve our targets as a team," he said.

Although retirement is still some years away, Harmanpreet is clear that he would always remain associated with the game even after calling it quits.

"World 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 can't stay away from hockey. Hockey is always in our heart and will remain there," he said.

"Whenever the calls comes to me in any capacity, I will be there to give back to the game," he said.

Harmanpreet is currently leading Punjab's Soorma Hockey Club at the ongoing Hockey India League in Rourkela. Soorma Hockey Club has so far played two matches, winning one and losing one.

"It is going to be tough for every team initially to gel together and get that understanding, build connections. We lost yesterday's match but we did a lot of good things in that.

"We can improve our combinations. We will analyse what mistakes we did. It's just the start of the league, long way to go," he said of the event that has been restarted after a seven-year gap.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)