P Anitha, Madhavan Nambiar, Sudha Hari Narayan Singh, Virender Singh, and KY Venkatesh have also been awarded the prestigious award.
After breaking an almost six-decade jinx with his gold medal-winning feat at the World Wrestling Championships, wrestler Sushil Kumar has set his eyes on next month's Commonwealth Games, where he believes India can produce about 15 champions.
Check out India's schedule on Day 9 of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast on Friday.
Bajrang Punia stopped using his social media handles and asked fans to keep showing him support as he gets battled ready for the Games
Amidst the dilemma of double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and Narsingh Yadav fighting each other for a place in the World Championships, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has decided to hold selection trials of the senior grapplers on July 6-7.
Following is India's schedule on Day 2 of competitions at the 18th Asian Games on Monday.
Star Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Friday said she does not have much time to grieve over her Tokyo Games debacle and is gearing up for future challenges while young Anshu Malik suggested that a sports psychologist should be attached with the team to help them overcome nerves at big stage like the Olympics.
The decision not to impose a blanket ban was not uniformly welcomed with Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, describing it as "yet another devastating blow to clean athletes."
Sushil Kumar, a bronze medal winner at the Beijing Olympics last year, missed out on another medal when he lost in the semi-finals of the Wrestling World Championships in Denmark.
Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik crashed out in the first round while compatriot Vinesh Phogat's campaign also ended in a whimper as Indian grapplers continued with dismal show at World Wrestling Championship.
The Indian Olympics Association (IOA), on Thursday, said that it will not object to wrestler Narsingh Yadav replacing Praveen Rana in the Rio Olympics if he is cleared by NADA in an ongoing dope scandal.
Vinesh Phogat, the only Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for Tokyo Olympics, has pulled out of the national camp citing health safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision which has irked the national federation.
While skill is not an issue with Vinesh, holding off strong candidates for six minutes is a big challenge, she herself had admitted recently.
India's hope of a medal from the Olympics wrestling competition suffered a rude jolt when their main star Yogeshwar Dutt crashed out after losing to Japan's Kenichi Yumoto 3-6 in the quarter-finals of the 60 kg freestyle in Beijing on Tuesday.
Touching feet is the traditional Indian way of showing respect to someone but, as his numerous opponents would vouch, if it's on the wrestling mat and the outstretched arms belong to Yogeshwar Dutt, it normally means danger.
The Delhi High Court on Monday, dismissed wrestler Sushil Kumar's plea seeking selection trial with Narsingh Yadav for 74 kg freestyle category for a berth at the Rio Olympics.
Wrestler Sushil Kumar, who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver at the following Games in London, has signed up with Olympic Gold Quest, which will provide him training and financial assistance in his preparation for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Vinesh Phogat was unable to hold back the tears in Istanbul last month when she emerged from a turbulent fortnight with a gold medal around her neck and a ticket to the Rio Olympics in her possession.
India's wrestler Simran settled for a silver in women's freestyle 43 kg category competition after she lost to Emily Shilson of United States in the final bout at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
'WADA had never intervened in Narsingh's matter and no clearance is required.'
India's top grappler Bajrang Punia has been handed the top billing in the men's 65kg freestyle category at the World Championships.
The Rio Olympics bronze medalist shared the stage with Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha during the Whisper 'Like a Girl' campaign. When asked about the recent trend of making biopics on sportsmen, Sonakshi said that she will be thrilled to star as Sakshi if at all a movie was made based on the wrestler's life.
American Caeleb Dressel will become a global superstar predicts Olympic historian Bill Mallon.
Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt is not keen to collect the upgraded silver medal from 2012 London Olympics on humanitarian grounds given that the original second place finisher's positive dope test came after his death.
Widely expected to clinch one last medal for India at the Rio Games, London Olympics bronze-medallist Yogeshwar Dutt is trying hard not to let the Narsingh Yadav episode affect him ahead of the men's 65kg freestyle event on Sunday. A day after an unassuming Sakshi Malik became the heartthrob of the nation by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal when she opened India's tally with a bronze, doping cloud began to haunt the grapplers again as Narsingh was slapped with a four-year ban for testing positive for banned substance.
Babita Kumari started her campaign in the women's 53 kg class wrestling at the Rio Olympics on a losing note on Thursday. The Indian grappler, who won two medals at past Commonwealth Games and also bagged a bronze in the World Championships four years ago, was beaten 1-5 by Maria Prevolaraki of Greece.
Kidambi Srikanth, the centre of attention in the Rio Olympics on Wednesday, can take heart from Hyderabad city mate P V Sindhu for his men's singles quarter-final clash against Chinese badminton icon Lin Dan.
India's Sujit Mann lost his first elimination round pool A bout 0-8 to Kunihiko Obata of Japan in the 74 kg freestyle category of the men's wrestling competition.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Saturday
The World Anti Doping Agency has rejected the National Anti Doping Panel verdict on wrestler Narsingh Yadav after he was given a clean chit to compete in Rio Olympic Games, according to reports on Monday.
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India's schedule on the ninth day of the competitions at the Asian Games in Incheon on Sunday.
The knee-injury which cut short her Rio Olympics campaign had left Vinesh Phogat writhing in pain, but the tears in her eyes on Monday after winning a historic gold medal at the Asian Games had a different meaning.
Star India wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt will have to wait to know whether his bronze medal from the 2012 London Olympics is upgraded to silver till the time his sample is cleared by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Reports emerged that the grappler's bronze would be upgraded to silver after second-place finisher of the London Games -- late Besik Kudukhov of Russia -- was stripped off his medal for failing a dope test.
The Wrestling Federation of India issued show cause notice to four wrestlers, including the Phogat sisters - Babita Kumari and Geeta - and handed them temporary suspension for indiscipline.
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.
Haryana wrestler Sakshi Malik has come a long way in her fairy-tale journey to etch her name in the sporting history of the country.
In a shocking turn of events, 25 out of the 45 women grapplers, who train at the SAI centre in Lucknow, reported absent from the national camp without taking permission from the National Federation.
It was gold rush for India on the opening day of the South Asian Games with the country's wrestlers, swimmers and weightlifters showing their regional dominance by making a near clean sweep of top honours on Saturday. India clinched 14 gold and five silver medals on a highly productive day to top the medals tally with an overall count of 19.Sri Lanka, despite having a higher overall medal count of 21, occupied the second spot in the table owing to alesser tally of gold medals (4). Wrestlers were the stars for India, grabbing as many as five gold medals followed by the swimmers who clinched four gold and three silver medals. The weightlifters added three gold medals to the tally after the cyclists had opened India's account with two gold and an equal number of silver medals in the morning. Three women and two male grapplers finished on top of the podium as the proceedings went on expected lines on the opening day of the competitions.
uspended wrestler Narsingh Yadav objected to Sushil Kumar's appointment as a national observer, raising conflict of interest allegations in a letter to the Sports Ministry.
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