Eyeing the gold for the upcoming Commonwealth games, Indian Women’s Hockey team goalkeeper, Bigan Soy has gained the confidence and is performing consistently ahead of the games. On Tuesday she would be heading for Patiala to attend a camp in the Senior Women’s Hockey Team.
Confident over the victory of her team in the Commonwealth games, the 20-year-old tribal girl said, “Hardwork never goes waste though I will have to work harder to improve myself and for our victory,” she added.
Bigan rushed to Bokaro to participate in a felicitation porgramme organised by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Coal-Bed-Methane Development Project. Soy got financial assistance of `2 lakhs by ONGC (CBM Division) under the CSR- SC/ST component plan on Monday.
In a bid to provide financial assistance to the player who brought laurel to the country, ONGC GM SMK Hyatt handed over the cheque to Bigan for her bronze medal-winning achievement in the Junior World Cup held at Germany.
After a gap of 38 years Indian team got the Bronze medal by defeating England 3-2 in penalties on August 4, 2013. Bigan played as a goalkeeper and helped India in getting an additional feather in the cap.
Notably, with the result tied at 1-1 after 70 minutes of play, India had replaced their regular goalkeeper Ningombam with Soy. In the 20-minute long penalty shootout, Soy saved five attempts from the English women as India won 3-2.
“As I am a tribal girl and, second among three siblings, hail from a small village Bandgao in West Singhbhum district. I started playing hockey with a bamboo stick when I was 12,” Bigan said.
Recalling her memory she said, “I first got the flavor of victory when I won a Khashi tournament. Defeating all, I won a couple of goats in that tournament,” added Bigan. “I played Junior Asia Cup and Shastri Cup in 2011 and U-21 Asia in 2012 later Junior World Cup which held at Germany”, she said. “I am on move to win for my country, I am also thankful to my coach who advised me to play as a goalkeeper”, added Bigan.