Anjali Thakker

Anjali Thakker
Born (1993-08-20) 20 August 1993
Christchurch, New Zealand
Height 5 ft 2 in (157 cm)
Weight 132 lb (60 kg; 9 st 6 lb)
Position Forward
Shoots Right
Liga Élite team
Former teams		 Hamilton Devils
Aranda de Duero
National team  New Zealand
Playing career 2005–present
Website www.anjali.nz
Medal record
Women's ice hockey
Women's inline hockey
Representing  New Zealand
IIHF World Women's Championships Div IV
2011 Iceland Team
FIRS Women's Inline Hockey World Championship
2013 United States Team

Anjali Dayalji Thakker (born 20 August 1993)[1] is a New Zealand ice hockey forward and inline hockey player. She is a member of the New Zealand women's national ice hockey team[2] and the CHL Aranda de Duero of the Spanish Senior Women's Liga Elite.

Early life

Thakker was born in Christchurch, New Zealand to a Kiwi mother and an Indian father, but grew up in Hamilton.She started playing inline hockey at the age of 11 when she attended Fairfield Intermediate School. She graduated from Hillcrest High School when she was 17 years old. Thakker was a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar at the University of Waikato and graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science major in Biochemistry. Her two-year older brother Sanjay Thakker has also represented New Zealand in inline hockey and studied at the same university.[3]

Inline hockey playing career

Hamilton Devils

She joined the Hamilton Devils in 2005 in the U12 programme and was selected as the team captain in 2006. Thakker lead her team to the gold medal at the New Zealand National Championships. In 2011 aged 18 she was chosen as the alternate captain of the senior team and lead her team to gold in the national championships, a feat repeated in 2012 and 2013[4] followed by a silver medal in 2014, with Thakker wearing the captain's C on her jersey.

Solent Lizards

Thakker began the 2015-16 season at the Solent Lizards in Fareham, United Kingdom. The team, however, folded following the closure of Solent Arena and Thakker was released from her contract.

Les Phénix Ris-Orangis

Following her stay in England, Thakker went to play for Ris-Orangis in the French Women's Elite league playing two games in which she scored 12 points.[5][6]

CHL Aranda de Duero

In December 2015 the Spanish Elite league's bottom club CHLAD from Aranda de Duero signed Thakker for an undisclosed sum.[7] After 4 games in CHLAD, Thakker has scored 10 goals making her the league's 2nd top scorer and CHLAD have climbed from the bottom spot and away from the relegation zone.

Köping Inline

Anjali Thakker Swedish Inline Hockey Champion 2016

The Swedish Köping Inline declared their intention to win both men and women's Swedish Championship in 2016 and made a number of high-profile signings to reach that goal and Thakker joined Köping's women's team for the finals during SM-veckan inline hockey finals 2016 in Norrköping. Thakker scored all 3 goals in their first game securing a 3-1 win for Köping. In the championship final against Wermland, Thakker scored the fastest hat trick in Swedish history taking just 2 minutes and 9 seconds to net three unanswered goals at the start of the first period.[8] The game ended in an 8-4 Köping victory with Thakker scoring 7 out of the 8 Köping goals.[9][10]

Ice hockey playing career

Auckland Women's Representative Team

After just a few months of starting ice hockey, Thakker was selected in the Auckland women's representative team in 2010. The team has since won four national titles from 2010-2013. In 2013 Thakker was alternate captain.

Melbourne Ice

In August 2014 Thakker signed to Melbourne Ice for the 2014-15 season. Melbourne Ice compete in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). Thakker assisted the team in lifting the Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy for the third consecutive year in 2015. Thakker finished sixth in the scoring leaders for the league, with 8 goals and 8 assists from 12 games played.

International

Thakker began her international inline hockey career in 2008 with the New Zealand Junior Women's National Team in the Oceania Inline Hockey Championships and continued to impress at the AAU Junior Olympics in 2010 where Thakker was the top scorer. She has featured in the New Zealand women's national team[11] every year since she was 17 and captained the team at the 2015 NARCh tournament.

She was again chosen into the New Zealand national team in 2016[12]

Despite her young age, Thakker is one of the most capped female ice hockey players in New Zealand[13] having represented New Zealand Ice Fernz every year since 2011.[14]

IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship 2016

Anjali Thakker selected as the Best Player for Team NZL at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship Division 2 Group B.

Selected early into the 2016 New Zealand women's national ice hockey team, Thakker had an international break-through tournament at the 2016 ice hockey world championship finals finishing second in goals and in points for the whole tournament scoring more than half of all New Zealand goals (7 out of 13)[15] and either scoring or assisting all New Zealand goals in all but one game in the tournament.[16][17][18][19] Her performance saw Thakker selected as the Best Player for Team New Zealand[20] and she was awarded the coveted IIHF Tissot watch.

Awards and honours

References

  1. ↑ "Anjali Thakker Profile - Eurohockey.com". Eurohockey.
  2. ↑ "Ice Fernz 2016 announced" (PDF). New Zealand Ice Fernz. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  3. ↑ "Study, work and inline hockey too". Te Piringa Faculty of Law eNewsletter. The University of Waikato. June 2013. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "Devils Claim National Title Hat Trick". Waikato Times. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  5. ↑ "Official Gamesheet" (PDF). French Inline Hockey League. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  6. ↑ "Official Gamesheet" (PDF). French Inline Hockey League. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  7. ↑ "El hockey Aranda femenino se quedo a un pasito de su primer exito". Diario de la Ribera. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  8. ↑ Hellström, Oscar. "Köping Inline tog dubbla SM-guld!". Magazin25.se. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  9. ↑ "Thakker Skot SM Guldet till Köping". Bärglagsbladet Arboga Tidning. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  10. ↑ "SVT nobbade damernas SM-final: "Inte seriöst"". Aftonbladet. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  11. ↑ "Local inline hockey players go to USA". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  12. ↑ "National Teams announced". New Zealand Inline Hockey Association. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  13. ↑ "Ice Fernz so close". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  14. ↑ "Skating success for University of Waikato Student". Scoop Independent News. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  15. ↑ "Player Statistics by Team" (PDF). International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  16. ↑ "Statistics". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  17. ↑ "Australia rising". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  18. ↑ "Scoring Leaders" (PDF). International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  19. ↑ "Goal Scoring Leaders" (PDF). International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  20. ↑ "Best Players in Each Team" (PDF). International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  21. ↑ "Sir Peter Blake Trust Dream Team". Sir Peter Blake Trust Dream Team. Sir Peter Blake Trust. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  22. ↑ Blomgren, Björn. "Thakker sköt SM-guldet till Köping". Bärgslagsbladet Arboga Tidning. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  23. ↑ "Best Players by Team" (PDF). International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  24. ↑ "Waikato University Students Recognised with the Prestigious Blues Awards". University of Waikato. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  25. ↑ "Sports Students Get The Blues". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  26. ↑ "Blues Awards Recipients 2012-2022". University of Waikato. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  27. ↑ "Anjali Thakker - Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar". University of Waikato. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  28. ↑ "2015 West Coast Skills Winners" (PDF). NARCh North American Roller Hockey Championships. Retrieved 26 January 2016.

External links

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