Report and photos from John Coxon
The Dutch and Argentina hockey stars, Naomi van As and Luciana Aymar have been voted joint World Hockey Players of the Year , the result being announced by the FIH during the ABN AMRO Champions Trophy in Melbourne, Australia today. Van Has and Aymar recorded exactly the same number of votes to scoop the title over the other four nominees, Australias Madonna Blyth, Chinas Baorong Fu , Germanys Natascha Keller, and Englands Helen Richardson. Nominees were announced back on 25th of November and they were elected by their peers as athletes that participated at the Samsung Champions Trophy and the BDO Champions Challenge were eligible to vote.
For Luciana Aymar , arguably the best player the world has ever seen, this incredibly is her sixth Player of the Year award having won the coveted accolade in 2001,2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008. She currently has 250 international caps and it is likely that she will be presented with her award at her next international appearance during the friendlies being played at Salta, Argentina, next week, against an experimental GB womens squad.
Naomi Van As plays "Hoofdklasse" ( Premiership) club hockey for the Den Haag, Hockey Club Klein Zwitserland and has had a fantastic year with current Olympic champions and currently ranked first in world , the Dutch national team. She was earlier voted best player at the 2008 Olympics and at the recent World Championships and is a skilful and aggresive striking forward player that continuies to impress.
Previous Winners Womens World Player of the Year
1998 Alyson Annan (AUS)
1999 Natascha Keller(GER)
2000 Alyson Annan (AUS)
2001 Luciana Aymar (ARG)
2002 Cecilia Rognoni (ARG)
2003 Mijntje Donners (NED)
2004 Luciana Aymar(ARG)
2005 Luciana Aymar (ARG)
2006 Minke Booij (NED)
2007 Luciana Aymar (ARG)
2008 Luciana Aymar (ARG)
