The International Hockey Federation or FIH has named Robert Van der Horst and Lidewij Welten of Netherlands as the 2015 Players of the Year in the men’s and women’s categories respectively. India’s Akashdeep Singh missed out on the junior player award. Ruhr beat Indian striker Akashdeep, Australian Blake Govers, and two others for the award.

Lily Owsley, the England and Great Britain forward has been named as the FIH’s Rising Star of the Year for 2015. Along with these awards, the FIH will also be awarding a Coach of the Year and an Umpire of the Year Award as part of Hockey Stars 2015 which will be announced soon.

The Netherlands made it a hat-trick of award wins as Joyce Sombroek picked up the women’s Goalkeeper of the Year for the second year in a row, while Ireland’s David Harte won the men’s Goalkeeper of the Year.

Women’s Rising Star of the Year – Great Britain and England’s Lily, emerged as a potent strike force for her teams in 2015.

The winners of this year’s FIH Hockey Stars were decided by the combined results of an online vote that was open to everyone and a peer vote from international athletes. Netherlands captain Robert van der Horst, who picked up the FIH Rising Star of the Year award 10 years ago, has played exceptionally well throughout 2015.