Two-time hockey Olympian Nikki Pradhan was on Monday promoted as OSD (sports) in group B gazette officer at South Eastern Railways for her contribution and success in the promotion of the game.
Pradhan was part of the Indian women’s team, which scripted history by reaching the semi-final in this year’s Tokyo Olympics. Since the debut of women’s team in field hockey in 1980 Olympics, it is for the first time that the Indian team had reached a semi-final match. In the match, the team suffered defeat against Great Britan by 1 goal in a highly spirited match which went down till the wire.
An official notification from the SER on Monday night stated that Pradhan was made general manager of the SER, Archana Joshini gave consent for her out of turn promotion. The communiqué read, “Nikki Pradhan, who is current employed with Ranchi rail division as chief yard master has been accorded out of turn promotion for her contribution to the hockey. She is now made OSD (sports), a gazette officer in the rank of group B.”
This was Nikki’s second consecutive stint in the Olympics. In 2016, she was part of Rio Olympics becoming the first woman hockey player from Jharkhand to represent the highest form of tournament. Before that she was part of U-17 Indian team which played Asia cup in Bangkok in 2011, took part in U-21 Asia cup in Bangladesh in 2012, Asia Cup in 2017 in Gifu (Japan), participated in Asian games in Jakarta in 2018. Ranchi’s divisional rail manager Pradeep Gupta welcomed the development stating that it testifies railways commitment towards promotion of players and sports.
Nikki hails from Hesal village in Khunti, an impoverished district over 40km from Ranchi. She along with Salima Tete from Simdega was part of the national squad in this year’s Olympics. Buoyed by the team’s performance despite losing out on bronze medal, the Jharkhand government too showered sops on the players by giving them Rs 50 lakh each, a scooty, laptop and a smart phone. Chief minister Hemant Soren has also announced to provide them with a 3000 sq feet house at the choice of their location.
