National Sports Day on Thursday observed President Ram Nath
Kovind presenting National Sports Day Awards 2019 on the 114th birth
anniversary of the hockey wizard of India, Major Dhyan Chand. The occasion took
place at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi in remembrance of the stalwart of
sports who won three gold medals at the Olympics pre-independence.
The president conferred the highest sporting honour of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award to Deepa Malik and Wrestler Bajrang Punia marking Deepa as the first Paralympian to receive the prestigious award. 19 athletes were awarded Arjuna Awards.
However, Wrestler Bajrang Punia wasn’t able to attend the
glittering award ceremony in New Delhi due to continuous training for World
Championship in Russia during September. Reportedly, the gold medallist would
be receiving the award from the Sports Minister Kiran Rijiju upon returning.
Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja was absent during the
ceremony while Jadeja along with Poonam Yadav has been the only cricketers to
be conferred with Arjuna Awards in 2019. Runner Mohammed Anas Yahiya has been
in Lucknow for the Inter-State Athletics Championships hence he too was unable
to attend the award function.
Apart from these big awards, Badminton coach Vimal Kumar
received the Dronacharya Award from the president for ardent coaching of
Pullela Gopichand and Saina Nehwal. Furthermore, wrestler Manoj Kumar, Archer C
Lalremsanga and 3 other athletes were awarded Dhyan Chand Award for
lifetime achievement.
Following is the list of National Sports Awards for the year
2019 conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind:-
Rajiv
Gandhi Khel Ratna Award
Deepa Malik (Para-Athletics) & Bajrang Punia (Wrestling)
Arjuna
Award
Ravindra Jadeja (Cricket), Mohammed Anas (Athletics), Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (Football), Sonia Lather (Boxing), Chinglensana Singh Kangujam (Hockey), S Bhaskaran (Bodybuilding), Ajay Thakur (Kabaddi), Anjum Moudgil (Shooting), Bhamidipati Sai Praneeth (Badminton), Tajinder Pal Singh Toor (Athletics), Pramod Bhagat (Para sports-badminton), Harmeet Rajul Desai (Table tennis), Pooja Dhanda (Wrestling), Fouad Mirza (Equestrian), Simran Singh Shergill (Polo), Poonam Yadav (Cricket), Swapna Burman (Athletics), Sundar Singh Gurjar (Para sports-athletics) and Gaurav Singh Gill (Motorsports).
Dronacharya
Award
Mohinder Singh Dhillon (athletics), Sandeep Gupta (table tennis)
and Vimal Kumar (badminton).
Dronacharya
Award (lifetime category)
Sanjay Bhardwaj (cricket), Rambir Singh Khokar (kabaddi) and Mezban Patel (hockey).
Dhyan Chand Award
Manoj Kumar (wrestling), C Lalremsanga (archery), Arup Basak (table tennis), Nitten Kirrtane (tennis) and Manuel Fredricks (hockey)
The
selection Committee for Sports Awards nominated these winners this month who
were felicitated by the president for their hard work and success. These
athletes have made our nation proud and hold a rigid grip over sustaining the
esteemed meaning of sports with their empowering achievements and inspiring
stories.
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