Sunelita Toppo

Sunelita Toppo (born 11 April 2007) is an Indian women's field hockey player from Odisha. She plays as a forward. She made her senior India debut at the FIH pro-league against China in Bhubaneswar on 3 February 2024. She is retained in the Senior team announced on 2 May 2024, for the Belgium and England leg of the FIH pro-hockey league.

Personal life
Sunelita hails from Kukuda village in Sundergarh district in Odisha. Her father Suresh Toppo is a farmer and her mother, Nelisunita Toppo, is a housewife. She says, she is inspired by her aunt Anupa Barla, who also played Junior World Cup for India. She is a product of the Sports Authority of India Training Centre, Sundergarh, which is considered as a cradle of budding hockey stars in India. Initially, she started to play hockey at the age of 8, with bamboo sticks.

Career
Sunelita represented Odisha in the National Games at Gujarat in 2022 and caught the eye of the selectors after an impressive performance. She made her junior India debut in February 2023 during the four-match South Africa tour and within a year she got the senior cap. She started as a mid-fielder but soon switched to forward line. Later in June 2023, she was part of the Indian junior team that won the Junior Asia Cup in Japan. She was also part of the junior India team that played the 4-nation invitational tournament in Düsseldorf, Germany in August 2023 and the Women's hockey Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile in December 2023.