Sprint legend P T Usha was on Thursday named chairperson of the selection committee for this year's national sports awards, while hockey icon Ashok Kumar was appointed head of the panel to pick the Dronacharya awardees. The 17-member panel to select the winners of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dhyan Chand awards also includes tennis ace Leander Paes and Olympic bronze medallist weightlifter Karnam Malleswari.
While Sharath is the lone Khel Ratna award recipient, a total of 25 athletes including shuttlers Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, woman boxer Nikhat Zareen, athletes Eldhose Paul, Avinash Sable have been nominated for the Arjuna Award this year.
In an unprecedented move, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the country's highest sporting award, will be conferred on four athletes this year. The Sports Ministry announced on Monday that Olympic medalists P V Sindhu and Sakshi Malik will be honoured alongside trail-blazing gymnast Dipa Karmakar and ace shooter Jitu Rai.
On November 30, President Droupadi Murmu presented the Sports and Adventure Awards 2022 at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Deepa Malik became the first Indian woman para-athlete and the oldest to be conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
Wrestling coach Anoop Singh and Paralympics coach Naval Singh among other nominees get Sports Ministry approval
This was due to the fact that they had already won the Khel Ratna, the country's highest sporting honour.
Virat Kohli sent the shutterbugs into a clicking frenzy as he received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
The Sports Ministry confirmed on Thursday that it will stick to the original list of winners for the Khel Ratna and Arjuna awards, thereby dashing discus thrower Krishna Poonia's hopes of being conferred the country's highest sporting honour.
Olympic bronze-winning Indian men's hockey team captain Manpreet Singh was on Tuesday added to the list of Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna awardees, taking the total number of this year's winners to an unparalleled 12.
Sharath is the lone Khel Ratna award recipient, 25 sportspersons, including shuttlers Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, woman boxer Nikhat Zareen, track and field athletes Eldhose Paul and Avinash Sable, were conferred with the Arjuna Award.
Sports Minister hands over trophies to 2020 National Sports Awards winners
Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the Secretary, Sports, who is holding concurrent charge as Director General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), to expedite the restructuring of its cadre to create at least nine more regional centres in the country and to effectively manage these centres, especially in the north eastern region and bigger states like Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Paralympic gold-winners Avani Lekhara, Sumit Antil, Pramod Bhagat, Krishna Nagar, Manish Narwal were also given the Khel Ratna at a dazzling awards ceremony on Saturday.
