D. Gukesh
| Photo Credit:
FIDE
Harmanpreet Singh.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
Praveen Kumar.
| Photo Credit:
ANI
Double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker has been chosen for the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award along with chess World Champion D. Gukesh, hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and Paralympic gold medallist Praveen Kumar, as per the announcement made by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on Thursday.
The President will present the sports awards at the Rashtrapati Bhavan at 11 a.m. on January 17.
There was a furore when Manu’s name was deemed to be missing from the list chosen by the panel that met to finalise the names. The apparent reason was that there was no application from the shooter, as the government had simplified the process by advocating self-application, instead of being recommended by the national federation or other persons.
With the Union Sports Minister having the final say, it was not a surprise to find Manu’s name being added to the list. Long ago, the Union Sports Ministry had proposed Saina Nehwal’s name and given her the Khel Ratna award even without any application or recommendation.
Two other shooters, Swapnil Kusale who won the rifle 3-position bronze, and Sarabjot Singh who had won the mixed air pistol bronze with Manu in the Paris Olympics, have been chosen for Arjuna award. The wrestling bronze medallist from the Paris Games, Aman Sehrawat, has also been picked for Arjuna award.
Murlikant Petkar, the 50-metre freestyle swimming gold medallist from the 1972 Paralympics in Heidelberg, Germany, was chosen for Arjuna award in the lifetime category, after he had won wide acclaim from the film Chandu Champion based on his real life story.
The government has listed 32 athletes for the Arjuna Award, with 16 of them being Paralympians. Understandably so, as India had the best haul in the Paralympics in Paris.
Four hockey players get the Arjuna Award, along with two athletes, two boxers, apart from one each in wrestling (Aman Sehrawat), swimming (Sajan Prakash) , squash (Abhay Singh), and chess (Vantika Agrawal).
Shooting coach Deepali Deshpande has been chosen for Dronacharya Award, along with hockey coach Sandeep Sangwan and para-shooting coach Subhash Rana.
Chandigarh University beat Lovely Professional University and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, to win the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad trophy for the best University.
The list of awardees:
Khel Ratna: D. Gukesh, Harmanpreet Singh, Praveen Kumar, Manu Bhaker.
Arjuna Award: Jyothi Yarraji, Annu Rani (athletics); Nitu Ghanghas, Saweety Boora (boxing); Vantika Agrawal (chess); Salima Tete, Abhishek Nain, Sanjay Rana, Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh (hockey); Rakesh Kumar (para-archery); Preeti Pal, Jeevanji Deepthi, Ajeet Singh, Sachin Khilari, Dharambir Nain, Pranav Soorma, Hokato Sema, Simran Sharma, Navdeep Singh (all para-athletics); Nitesh Kumar, Thulasimathi Murugesan, Nithya Sivan, Manisha Ramadass (all para-badminton); Kapil Parmar (para-judo); Mona Agarwal, Rubina Francis (para-shooting); Swapnil Kusale, Sarabjot Singh (shooting), Abhay Singh (squash); Sajan Prakash (swimming); Aman Sehrawat (wrestling).
Arjuna Awards (lifetime): Sucha Singh (athletics), Murlikant Petkar (para swimming).
Dronacharya Award: Subhash Rana (para shooting), Deepali Deshpande (shooting), Sandeep Sangwan (hockey).
Dronacharya (lifetime): S Muralidharan (badminton), Armando Colaco (football).
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar: Physical Education Foundation of India.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy: Chandigarh University.
Published – January 02, 2025 05:15 pm IST
