The Mahindra Scorpio Times of India Sports Awards 2018 were held on February 26, honouring the best performance of in Indian sports from the last year. Kidambi Srikanth claimed the top prize of Sportsperson of the Year. The third edition of the glittering sports honour was held in Mumbai and was powered by All-Out. The event saw the best of sportsmen in attendance and tennis champion Stefan Edberg was the mentor for the evening. Times Group Director Vineet Jain and Relaince chairperson Nita Ambani were present at the event.
Kidambi Shrikanth set many records in 2017 with his smooth badminton play. He gained much dominance on the badminton court and has got his coveted reward for the same. He is the third one to win the award after Jitu Rai and PV Sindhu. The Indian Men's Hockey Team made us proud when they won the Asia cup last year and even got bronze medals in the Hockey World League Final. TOISA thus honoured them with the Team of The Year Award.
A new award was introduced this year called the Inspiration of the Year, which was given to the Indian women's cricket team. The women’s cricket team had reached final of the ICC Women's World Cup last year and were indeed an inspiration to many, so they rightfully deserved the award.
Here’s the list of all the winners of TOISA 2018:
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
CHANGE AGENT: Madhya Pradesh
PARA-ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: Varun Bhati
ARCHER OF THE YEAR: Abhishek Verma
ATHLETE OF THE YEAR: G Lakshmanan
BADMINTON PLAYER OF THE YEAR (MALE & FEMALE): Kidambi Srikanth & PV Sindhu
BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Amjyot Singh Gill
BILLIARDS/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 & FEMALE): Jasprit Bumrah & Harmanpreet Kaur
FOOTBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
GOLFER OF THE YEAR: Ajeetesh Sandhu
HOCKEY PLAYER OF THE YEAR (MALE & FEMALE): Harmanpreet Singh & Savita Punia
KABADDI PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Pardeep Narwal
SHOOTER OF THE YEAR (MALE & FEMALE): Ankur Mittal & Heena Sidhu
SQUASH PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Saurav Ghosal
TABLE TENNIS 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
TOISA serves as a good platform to honour the sports talent in the country, who have won big at the international games and made the country proud. A 6-member jury which included Abhinav Bindra, Gautam Gambhir, Bhaichung Bhutia, Devendra Jhajharia, Reeth Abraham and along with the Chief Editor of Times Internet Ltd, Rajesh Kalra decided upon the deserving winners for the sports awards.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 27, 2018 09:30 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).