Age not a big barrier, asserts veteran hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh

The 2020 Olympics bronze medalist recently became the second Indian to win the World Games Athlete of the Year award.

Veteran Indian men's hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh made history recently. He became the second Indian to win the World Games Athlete of the Year, after Rani Rampal. Sreejesh beat his fellow nominees by a huge margin of votes. He got 1,27,647 votes, leaving behind runner-up sport climber Spaniard Alberto Gines Lopez by more than 60,000 votes.

Post this achievement, the Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist spoke about it along with his future plans. Here are the excerpts.

On winning the Athlete of the Year crown in such dominant fashion

PR Sreejesh thanked the hockey-lovers in India who voted for him. "The thing is that the Indian people love me. The hockey-lovers love me. Secondly, when it comes to voting, the Indian people or the hockey-lovers never let you down. This shows us they are our family and it also shows their commitment towards their players. Being a player, my job is to play for our country and bring glory to our country," he said.

"Whatever leads I got whatever votes I got, it is from the people. So, this is something that they have shown, their love for the game and the hockey players through their voting. It is a collective success of a hockey player and the hockey family," humbly added PR Sreejesh.

His views on new generation of Indian goalkeepers

PR Sreejesh also had very positive and encouraging words to say about the new breed of Indian goalkeepers, like Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Suraj Karkera. "They are in the system for a long time and even they are getting chances. If you see, Pathak was there with me for three years and even Suraj was there. Pathak is performing really good and in the last tournament, Suraj was adjudged the "Goalkeeper of the Tournament." So, they are learning," opined the experienced custodian.

Sreejesh was not short of praise for junior goalkeepers like Pawan Kumar Singh and Prashant Singh Chauhan as well. "They were brilliant during the Junior World Cup. So, the next line of goalkeepers are developing the right way and my duty is to raise the level of goalkeeping. This is so that these players can achieve more and the Indian team will also not miss out on good goalkeepers in the future," added the goalkeeper.

On his future plans & possible retirement

PR Sreejesh isn't worried about age catching up with him. "For a goalkeeper age is not a big barrier. It's about how passionate he is towards the game, how hard he is working and how good is his performance. At present, I am just focusing on my performance. As long as I am good enough, I am wanting to continue," he asserted.

"I am not keeping long-term targets, just short ones. So, the World Cup is there, the Olympics is an option too. Being in this age it is important to keep short targets and hope I can keep up with this level of performance. If things go accordingly, then I will think about Paris (Olympics) as well," concluded PR Sreejesh.

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