Anjali Dayalji Mulari (née Thakker) (born 20 August 1993) is a New Zealand

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

forward and

inline hockey Roller inline hockey, or inline hockey is a variant of hockey played on a hard, smooth surface, with players using inline skates to move and ice hockey sticks to shoot a hard, plastic puck into their opponent's goal to score points. The spo ...

player. She is a member of the New Zealand women's national ice hockey team, Auckland Steel Ice Hockey Team and the Hamilton Devils Inline Hockey Team. Her previous teams include CHL

Aranda de Duero Aranda de Duero is a city and municipality, capital of the Ribera del Duero comarca, in the south of the province of Burgos, in Castile and León, Spain. It has a population of roughly 33,000 people and lies on the River Duero. The closest int ...

of the Spanish Senior Women's Liga Elite,

Ris-Orangis Ris-Orangis () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Inhabitants of Ris-Orangis are known as ''Rissois''. History The commune of Ris-Orangis was created in 1793 by the merger of the com ...

in France and

Köping ''Köping'' was a Swedish denomination for a market town since the Middle Ages, derived from the Old Norse word ''kaupang''. The designation was officially abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when Sweden was subdivided into the Municip ...

in Sweden.

Early life

Mulari was born in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand to a Kiwi mother and an Indian father, and grew up in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. She began 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. Mulari was a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar at the

University of Waikato , mottoeng = For The People , established = 1964; years ago , endowment = (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $263.6 million (31 December 2020) , chancellor = Sir Anand Satyanand, GNZM, QSO, KStJ , vice_chancellor = Neil Quigley , cit ...

and graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science major in Biochemistry. Her two-years-older brother Sanjay Thakker has also represented New Zealand in inline hockey, and studied at the same university.

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. Mulari led 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 led her team to gold in the national championships, a feat repeated in 2012 and 2013 followed by a silver medal in 2014, with Mulari wearing the captain's C on her jersey. Still the Captain, Mulari led the Devils to yet another New Zealand Championship in 2016.

Les Phénix Ris-Orangis

Following a brief stay in England for the 2015–16 season, Mulari signed to play for

in the French Women's Elite league playing two games in which she scored 12 points.

CHL Aranda de Duero

In December 2015 the Spanish Elite league's bottom club CHLAD from

signed Mulari for an undisclosed sum. After 4 games in CHLAD, Mulari 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

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 Mulari joined Köping's women's team for the finals during SM-veckan inline hockey finals 2016 in Norrköping. Mulari scored all 3 goals in their first game securing a 3–1 win for Köping. In the championship final against Wermland, Mulari 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. The game ended in an 8–4 Köping victory with Mulari scoring 7 out of the 8 Köping goals.

Ice hockey playing career

Auckland Steel

After just a few months of starting ice hockey, Mulari was selected in the Auckland women's representative team in 2010. The team has since won four national titles from 2010 to 2013. In 2013 Mulari was alternate captain. Mulari once again gained a leadership position in Auckland Steel for the 2016–17 season. She led Auckland to an undefeated season and broke all player records in the process with her 70 points over the 12-game season.

Melbourne Ice

In August 2014, Mulari signed to

Melbourne Ice The Melbourne Ice is an Australian semi-professional ice hockey team from Melbourne, Victoria, based at the Icehouse in the Docklands precinct of central Melbourne. Founded in 2000, the Ice have been a member of the Australian Ice Hockey Leag ...

for the 2014–15 season. Melbourne Ice compete in the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL). Mulari assisted the team in lifting the

Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy The Joan McKowen Memorial Trophy is the annually awarded championship trophy, of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League (AWIHL), to the winner of the AWIHL finals. Originally donated in 1995, the trophy is named after Joan McKowen who died Septe ...

for the third consecutive year in 2015. Mulari finished sixth in the scoring leaders for the league, with 8 goals and 8 assists from 12 games played.

International

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

IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship 2016

Anjali Thakker - 2016 World Champs Best Player NZL

Selected early into the 2016 New Zealand women's national ice hockey team, Mulari 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) and either scoring or assisting all New Zealand goals in all but one game in the tournament. Her performance saw Mulari selected as the Best Player for Team New Zealand and she was awarded the coveted IIHF

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watch.

IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship 2017

Following her break-through season in 2016, Mulari was selected as the Alternate Captain of the 2017 Ice Fernz at the IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship 2017 tournament in

Akureyri Akureyri (, locally ) is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fifth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, Reykjanesbær and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's more populated southwest corner. Nickn ...

, Iceland. Thakker proved once again her value for Team New Zealand by scoring or assisting 15 of New Zealand's 20 goals in the tournament thus being responsible for 75% of the team's offensive output. Mulari dominated the tournament in every key statistic for skaters. Mulari scored the most goals (7), had the most assists (8), most points (15) and best +/- (+9) record of all players in the tournament. Mulari's dominance saw her win the top individual prize of the tournament, the Most Valuable Forward trophy.

IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship 2023

After a break to start a family, Anjali Mulari was again selected to represent New Zealand at the

2023 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship will be an international ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) which will be contested in Brampton, Canada from 5 to 16 April 2023, at the CAA Centre. Particip ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. In New Zealand's first game of the tournament against

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, Mulari broke the New Zealand national team record for most points in a game by scoring a goal and adding 7 assists. Mulari finished the tournament with 11 points from 4 games. She topped the tournament's assist table and was the only Top 10 points scorer from Team New Zealand.

Awards and honours

* Sir Peter Blake Trust Dream Team Leader *

Duffy Books in Homes Duffy Books in Homes is the trading name of The Alan Duff Charitable Foundation. It is a New Zealand registered, literacy-focused charitable organization which has links to similar organisations in the United States and Australia. History The p ...

Role Model * Most Valuable Forward, IIHF World Championship 2017 * Top Scorer at Swedish Inline Hockey Championships 2016 *

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

Blues Award 2016 * Best Player Team New Zealand, IIHF World Championship 2023 * Best Player Team New Zealand, IIHF World Championship 2016 * University of Waikato Sporting Blues Award 2011–14 * Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship * New Zealand University Blues Award 2012 * NARCh Fastest Skater Award 2015 * Top Sniper New Zealand National Skills Competition 2014

References

External links

*
Official website

Facebook Fan Page

Instagram Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulari, Anjali 1993 births Ice hockey forwards New Zealand inline hockey players Living people New Zealand ice hockey players New Zealand sportspeople of Indian descent New Zealand sportswomen Sportspeople from Christchurch University of Waikato alumni Women's ice hockey forwards New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate ice hockey players in Australia New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Sweden People educated at Hillcrest High School, Hamilton