Ranking Rani Rampal’s biggest achievements

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The former captain of the Indian women’s hockey team, Rani Rampal has many achievements to her name, including scoring 117 goals in 250 matches played for India, and representing India at the World Cup in 2010, aged 15. With a long and illustrious career, we revisit some of her biggest achievements.

1) India were the winners of the first edition of the Women’s Hockey Champions Challenge II, hosted by Russia in 2009, and Rampal was the top scorer of the tournament with seven goals. She also scored four out of six goals in the final, where India defeated Belgium, and two goals in India’s victory over Canada in the group stage.

2) Rampal also left a mark at the 2010 World Cup in Argentina, where she won the “Young Player of the tournament” award. Though India could not qualify to the knockout stages, Rampal delivered some impressive performances by scoring five of India’s seven goals in the group stages, and two goals in India’s 4-3 victory against South Africa for the nineth place.

3) India successfully won the bronze medal at the 2013 Women’s Hockey Junior World Cup in Germany, which remains its only medal in the Junior World Cup. Rani was named “Player of the Tournament”, and scored a total of 4 goals, including India’s solo goal against England in the bronze medal match, which India subsequently won on penalties.

4) Rani Rampal also successfully captained India to a win at the 2017 Asia Cup, which was the second time that India won the title, where she scored three goals in the tournament. The final against China was won on penalties, where Rani scored twice, and she also scored two goals in India’s 10-0 victory over Singapore.

5) Finally, Rani Rampal is the first Indian captain of the women’s hockey team who guided it to the semi-finals of an Olympics, after a gap of 40 years. At the Tokyo Olympics, while the men’s team had a podium finish, the women’s team missed out narrowly and finished fourth. The team lost 4-3 against Great Britain in the bronze medal match, but still achieved India’s best performance at the Olympics by the women’s team in 40 years.