A thunderous applause greeted London Olympic heroes Vijay Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt as they jointly received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the country's highest sporting honour, at a glittering ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Thursday.
Asian Games gold medallist Jitu Rai has been recommended for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for his exploits in pistol shooting in the last two years although he couldn't win a medal in the Rio Olympics. "Yes, we have recommended Jitu's name for Khel Ratna award," National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) secretary Rajiv Bhatia said. NRAI has also recommended woman rifle shooter Apurvi Chanela and men rifle shooters Gurpreet Singh and PN Prakash for the Arjuna Awards, according to Bhatia.
The Badminton Association of India (BAI) on Friday recommended Kidambi Srikanth for the Khel Ratna award after the top Indian shuttler apologised for pulling out of a tournament midway and show-caused his teammate H S Prannoy for slamming the federation after not being nominated for the Arjuna honour.
Last Thursday, the awards selection committee of Khel Ratna recommended para athlete and Rio Paralympics gold medallist Devendra Jhajharia for the prestigious award for 2017.
The Indian captain also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the honour while also thanking BCCI President Sourav Ganguly for recommending her name for the honour.
Robbed of some sheen due to selection controversies this year, the National Sports Awards were presented to the country's top athletes and coaches with shooter Ronjan Sodhi getting the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna -- the country's highest sporting honour -- while cricketer Virat Kohli was among the Arjuna awardees.
The Cricket Board has recommended India's ODI and Twenty20 captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest honour for any sportsperson in the country.
As per the Ministry sources, a special request was made by the BCCI to the sports ministry to include Shami's name as he didn't originally feature in the list of the country's second-highest sporting honour.
Rani Rampal led the team to historic victories in the Women's Asia Cup in 2017, silver at the 2018 Asian Games and played a critical role in the FIH Olympic Qualifiers in 2019 by scoring the deciding goal that helped India qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
The 21-year-old cueist will be conferred the country's highest sporting honour.
Chess ace P Harikrishna and shuttler Chetan Anand were among 14 others to receive Arjuna awards.
Twenty-one sportspersons, including cricketer Virender Sehwag, footballer I M Vijayan and hockey player Gagan Ajit Singh, have been named for the Arjuna awards 2002.
The list of 14 Arjuna award winners releases on Wednesday did not include a single men's cricketer.
BCCI wrote to the Union Sports Ministry recommending the names of Ganguly and his deputy Rahul Dravid for outstanding performance in 2004.
Anju Bobby George and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore were awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Arjuna award respectively.
No sportsperson has been named for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna while 15, including cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin, were recommended for the Arjuna Award this year.
When asked about Indian football, Bhutia said: "There should be long term planning. Lately, we have not been able to do well, it will take time."
Chess champion Koneru Humpy has been nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
This was due to the fact that they had already won the Khel Ratna, the country's highest sporting honour.
Somdev Devvarman may have led a players' rebellion against the national tennis federation, but AITA has recommended him for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award for 2013.
Deepa Malik became the first Indian woman para-athlete and the oldest to be conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
Sania Mirza reacted with delight at her being recommended for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, describing it as the "most amazing" development.
India's one-day and Twenty20 captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Monday chosen for the Raviv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the country's highest honour for a sportsperson.
Not a man for diplomatic circumlocution, wrestler Sushil Kumar on Wednesday said it would have been injustice if he was denied the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award even after winning the bronze medal in Beijing Olympics.
The champion woman pugilist's nomination was sent hours before the deadline for submitting the same.
Sports Minister hands over trophies to 2020 National Sports Awards winners
Disappointed at being ignored for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, top woman discus thrower Krishna Poonia on Wednesday went to see Sports Minister Jitendra Singh to express her displeasure over the issue but failed to meet him.
Rohit hit an unprecedented five hundreds in a single edition of the World Cup last year and had a great run last year.
India's limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma, star wrestler Vinesh Phogat, TT player Manika Batra and Paralympic gold-winning high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu were on Tuesday picked for this year's Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award by the sports ministry's selection committee.
India's limited overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma has been nominated for the prestigious 'Khel Ratna', the BCCI announced on Saturday, acknowledging the prolific batsman's stupendous performance in the 2019 ODI World Cup. In the women's category, all-rounder Deepti Sharma was BCCI's pick for the Arjuna for her consistent show in both ODIs and T20Is in the past three years.
Ace shooter Gagan Narang, who notched up four gold medals at last year's Commonwealth Games, was on Monday conferred the country's highest sporting honour -- the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award -- in a glittering ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.
The Cricket Board has decided to recommend recently retired stalwart Rahul Dravid for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and Yuvraj Singh, the player of the World Cup, for the Arjuna Award.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India officially made it clear that it did not receive any request from the Sports Ministry for nominating cricketers for the Arjuna and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awards.
Virat Kohli sent the shutterbugs into a clicking frenzy as he received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is among the 20 sportspersons picked for the Arjuna Awards, who will be honoured by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
For the Dronacharya awards, the BFI has finalised the names of national women's coach Mohammed Ali Qamar and assistant coach Chhote Lal Yadav.
For the first time, three top sportspersons -- boxers M C Mary Kom and Vijender Singh, and wrestler Sushil Kumar -- were selected for the country's highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. While the prestigious award was previously shared by two sportspersons in 1996-97 and 2002-03, Wednesday marked the first time that three were picked for the coveted honour for outstanding performances in 2008-09.
Olympic heroes boxer Vijender Singh, wrestler Sushil Kumar, along with four-time world champion woman pugilist M C Mary Kom, were on Saturday conferred the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in a glittering ceremony in New Delhi. For the first time in the history of national sports awards, three sportspersons were individually bestowed India's highest sporting honour, which comes with an enhanced cash prize of Rs 7.5 lakh and a newly-designed statuette.
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