On the again of a historic Paralympics marketing campaign, the Nationwide Sports activities Awards checklist this time contains extra para-athletes than able-bodied ones, with Paris Video games champion Praveen Kumar amongst these chosen for the nation’s highest sporting honour, the Main Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
Not too long ago-crowned chess world champion D Gukesh, Olympic double-medallist shooter Manu Bhaker and Harmanpreet Singh, who led the hockey crew to its second successive podium end, have been different athletes to be awarded the Khel Ratna, the Sports activities Ministry stated on Thursday.
Other than 4 Khel Ratna, the ministry introduced 32 Arjuna Awardees, 17 of them Paralympians.
The Khel Ratna winners obtain a money prize of Rs 25 lakh together with a quotation and a medallion. The Arjuna awardees are given Rs 15 lakh as money reward, a statuette of Arjuna and a quotation. The award ceremony can be held in New Delhi on January 17.
India’s first Paralympic gold medallist Mulikant Petkar, who gained the highest honour within the 50m freestyle swimming occasion on the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics, was awarded the Arjuna Award (Lifetime). The Military man’s inspiring story of resurrecting himself as a para-athlete after being disabled attributable to bullet wounds sustained through the 1965 India-Pakistan struggle was just lately become the biopic ‘Chandu Champion’.
Among the many Khel Ratnas, Praveen was topped the T64 champion on the Paris Paralympics. The T64 classification is for athletes who’ve one or each legs lacking under the knee and depend on a prosthetic leg for operating.
Manu made historical past in Paris by changing into the one Indian athlete since Independence — man or girl — to win two medals at a single Olympic Video games.
Gukesh, 18, in the meantime, turned the youngest-ever world champion in chess after defeating Ding Liren in Singapore final month. He had gained the Candidates match earlier in 2024 to safe his spot on the World Chess Championship and likewise led the Indian chess crew to a crew gold on the Budapest Olympiad.
“Honourable Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi ji, I’m actually grateful and really feel humbled to obtain the distinguished Main Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. Your phrases and steerage have at all times impressed me to attempt for excellence and make the nation proud,” Gukesh wrote on X. “I promise to proceed delivering my finest strikes on 64 squares and out of doors of it. Thanks Hon. Sports activities Minister @mansukhmandviya Ji to your fixed help.”
There have been additionally just a few disgruntled athletes disregarded of the honours’ checklist. Paris Paralympics gold medallist archer Harvinder Singh, Yogesh Kathuniya and Sharad Kumar weren’t included within the Khel Ratna checklist. The omission of Asian Video games gold medallist archer Jyothi Vennam, too, has been a speaking level.
In an announcement, the ministry stated the names have been introduced primarily based on the suggestions of a committee and after ‘due scrutiny’. “The awardees will obtain their awards from the President of India at a specially-organised perform at Rashtrapati Bhavan on seventeenth January, 2025 (Friday) at 1100 hours,” the sports activities ministry stated in a press launch.
Thirty-two athletes will obtain the Arjuna Award. Main that checklist are Tokyo medallists Aman Sehrawat, Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot Singh and males’s hockey crew members Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Sanjay and Abhishek.
Kusale’s coach Deepali Deshpande was chosen for the Dronacharya Award whereas former India soccer coach Armando Colaco and badminton coach S Muralidharan can be conferred with the Dronacharya award within the lifetime class.
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