Sannuvanda Kushalappa Uthappa (born 2 December 1993) is an Indian professional

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

for the India national team and

Kalinga Lancers Kalinga Lancers (abbreviated as KAL) is a field hockey team based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha that plays in the Hockey India League. It is jointly owned by Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) and Mahanadi Coalfield Limit ...

at the

Hockey India League Hockey India League (HIL), known as the Coal India Hockey India League is a professional field hockey league in India. The league is organized by Hockey India, the governing body for the sport in India. HIL, along with the Indian Premier League, ...

. S. K. Uthappa made his international debut in 2012 and has since made over 100 appearances for the national team. He was a part of the team that won silver at the 2016 Champions Trophy.

Early life

Uthappa picked up the sport as a profession at the age of eight after watching his brother play hockey for

Bangalore University Bangalore University (BU) is a public state university located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The university is a part of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and affiliated by Univers ...

as he grew up. Then a student of Lions School, Gonikoppal in Karnataka's

Kodagu district Kodagu (also known by its former name Coorg) is an administrative district in the Karnataka state of India. Before 1956, it was an administratively separate Coorg State, at which point it was merged into an enlarged Mysore State. It occupies ...

, he was actively involved in sports and won competitions of

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and hockey. He holds the Karnataka State record for most goals scored (16) in a five-game inter-district tournament, when he played for his district, Kodagu. Uthappa took to hockey professionally at 14 and joined the

Sports Authority of India The Sports Authority of India (SAI) is the apex national sports body of India, established in 1982 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of Government of India for the development of sports in India. SAI has 2 Sports Academic institution ...

, Bangalore, in 2004. There he represented his school St. Joseph's Indian High School, and St. Joseph's College of Commerce and

, before being chosen to play for the junior team of his State, Karnataka. In 2010, he captained the side to the nationals title in Pune, defeating hockey Punjab in the final. Playing for the senior team in 2011 at the National Championships, he was named the Best Player; his side finished second.

Career

International career

Uthappa made his international debut against

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

on 16 January 2012 at the first match of a five-match series, in Delhi. He scored a goal in the game, in the 53rd minute. He featured in four of the five games and scored a total of three goals. He was then picked to play at the 2012 Olympics Qualification Tournament and appeared in all of the six games, scoring one goal, against Singapore. SK at the Rio Olympic 2016 Hockey arena

Uthappa captained the side for the first time at the 2016 Asian Champions Trophy in Malaysia, in a league game against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, in the process of rotation of captaincy the team followed after the

2016 Rio Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro de ...

. His side won the game 3–2.

Club career

Hockey India League

In the inaugural edition of the

in 2013, Uthappa was picked up by the

Uttar Pradesh Wizards The Uttar Pradesh Wizards (abbreviated as UPW) are a field hockey team based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh that plays in the Hockey India League. It is owned by Sahara India Pariwar. Former Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans serves as coach for the team an ...

franchise. He played for three editions of the tournament, till 2015. In the 2013 season, the team finished third. For the 2016 season, he was bought by

for 54,000. The side finished second. The team won the season in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, beating

Dabang Mumbai Dabang Mumbai (abbreviated as DBM) is a field hockey team based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, that plays in the Coal India Hockey India League (HIL). The aim is to build a team for the eight-time Olympic Champions, India be able to compete a ...

in the final.

Honours

International

* Champions Trophy:

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, second place *

Asian Hockey Champions Trophy The Men's Asian Champions Trophy is an event held annually by the Asian Hockey Federation (since 2011). It features Asia's top six field hockey teams during that hockey season competing in a round robin format. India and Pakistan are the joint mo ...

Club

Individual

* Ekalavya Award, 2014

References

External links

*
Profile
at Hockey India
Profile
at

International Hockey Federation The Fédération Internationale de Hockey (English: International Hockey Federation), commonly known by the acronym and initialism, acronym FIH, is the international governing body of field hockey and indoor field hockey. Its headquarters are i ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uthappa, S. K. Living people Olympic field hockey players for India Field hockey players from Karnataka Field hockey players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 2016 Summer Olympics People from Kodagu district 1993 births Kodava people Indian male field hockey players Uttar Pradesh Wizards players Male field hockey midfielders 2014 Men's Hockey World Cup players