An unprecedented 11 sportspersons have been recommended for this year's rechristened Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna by the national sports award's selection committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Mukundakum Sharma. This is the first time that many names have been recommended for a single edition of the Awards Ceremony. Last year, the government honored a total of 74 athletes with the National Sports and Adventure Awards in different segments. The awardees included five in the Khel Ratna category and 27 for Arjuna. This year, a total of 72 names have been recommended for the Khel Ratna, Arjuna (35), Dhyan Chand, Dronacharya (regular) and Dronacharya (lifetime). The list doesn't include names of athletes, corporates and sports promotion boards and top-performing universities recommended for the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar (RKPP), Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) trophy and Tenzing Norgay award. Among those who have been recommended for the Khel Ratna - India's highest sporting honour - include tokyo olympics gold medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, silver-winning men's freestyle wrestler Ravi Dahiya, Tokyo olympics bronze medallist woman welterweight boxer Lovlina Borgohain and men's hockey team's goalkeeper P R Sreejesh. Five para-athletes, who created history by winning gold each at the Tokyo Paralympics, have also been nominated for the Khel Ratna. These include Pramod Bhagat (para-badminton), Sumit Antil (para-javelin), Avani Lekhara (para-shooting), Krishna Nagar (para-badminton) and Manish Narwal (para-shooting).KHEL RATNA: Neeraj Chopra (athletics), Ravi Dahiya (wrestling), PR Sreejesh (hockey), Lovlina Borgohain (boxing in olympics), Sunil Chhetri (football), Mithali Raj (cricket), Pramod Bhagat (parabadminton), Sumit Antil (para- javelin), Avani Lekhara (para-shooting), Krishna Nagar (para-badminton) and Manish Narwal (para-shooting).ARJUNA AWARD: Arpinder Singh (triple jump), Simranjit Kaur (boxing), Shikhar Dhawan (cricket), Bhavani Devi (fencing), Monika (hockey), Vandana Katariya (hockey), Sandeep Narwal (kabaddi), Himani Uttam Parab (mallakhamb) ), Abhishek Verma (shooting), Ankita Raina (tennis), Deepak Punia (wrestling), Dilpreet Singh (hockey), Harmanpreet Singh (hockey), Rupinder Pal Singh (hockey), Surendra Kumar (hockey), Amit Rohidas (hockey) , Birendra Lakra (hockey), Sumit (hockey), Nilakanta Sharma (hockey), Hardik Singh (hockey), Vivek Sagar Prasad (hockey), Gurjant Singh (hockey), Mandeep Singh (hockey), Shamsher Singh (hockey), Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (hockey), Varun Kumar (hockey), Simranjeet Singh (hockey), Yogesh Kathuniya (para-athletics), Nishad Kumar (para-athletics), Praveen Kumar (para-athletics), Suhash Yathiraj (para-badminton), Singhraj Adhana (parashooting), Bhavina Patel (paratable tennis), Harvinder Singh (para-archery) and Sharad Kumar (para-athletics).DHYANCHAND AWARD: OP Jaisha (athletics), Divya Singh (basketball), KC Lekha (boxing), Abhijeet Kunte (chess), Davinder Singh Garcha (hockey), Vikas Kumar (kabaddi), Nir Bahadur Gurung (para sports athletics), PS Abdul Rassak (volleyball) and Sajjan Singh (wrestling) DRONACHARYA (REGULAR): Jai Prakash Nautiyal (para-shooting), Mahaveer Prasad Saini (para-athletics), Pritam Siwach (hockey), Radhakrishnan Nair (athletics), Sandeep Sangwan (hockey) ), Sandhya Gurung (boxing), Sujeet Maan (wrestling) and Subramanian Raman (table tennis).DRONACHARYA (LIFETIME): Ashan Kuamr (kabaddi), Bhaskar Chandra Bhatt (hockey), CR Kumar (hockey), Jagrup Rathi (wrestling), S Muralidharan (badminton), Sarkar Talwar (sports cricket), Sarpal Singh (hockey), Tapan Kumar Panigrahi (swimming) and TP Ouseph (athletics).Also Read- Afghanistan Captain Mohammad Nabi before PC: 5 minute mei English Khatam Ho Jayegi
Chandigarh: Athletes gave India reason to rejoice with the best medals ever at the Olympic and Paralympic Games held in Tokyo under the COVID-19 cloud.Two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar's blessing on prodigy Ravi Dahia's rise to a silver medalist in Tokyo, Bajrang Puneya, who won bronze with a heavy knee, reports on TOI's 2021 share of pain and gains.One thing was clear from the statements of Tokyo Olympic medalists Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Bunya. The two were unwilling to accept rare silver medals and bronze medals of equal value, respectively.If someone scrolls through the Bajrang timeline on his social media account, the Asian and Commonwealth Games champion can be seen sleeping with him alongside the bronze medalist in Tokyo, with the caption: " The dream has yet to change reality. "Dahiyeh also cropped a static image on the podium, realizing that the job was not done yet. Settling in second place, he said, "I didn't come to Tokyo to win silver. That wouldn't give me satisfaction. I couldn't get what I wanted."However, Ravi's silver and Bajrang's bronze ensured that India was not left empty in wrestling, as in the end there was a sense of dissatisfaction after the wrestlers failed to achieve great performances.Suburb, a resident of Nahari village in Haryana's Sonipat district, was definitely one of the black horses of the Indian squad in Tokyo. It was his courage and valor that made him an overnight sensation despite losing the 57kg final to defending champion Zavor Ojeev, a fighter who has dominated the weight class for nearly four years.Most interesting is the way 23-year-old Ravi entered the Olympic final. The Chhatrasal Stadium result of 2-9 in the second half saw a dramatic comeback when Kazakhstan's double world medalist Norrislam Sanayev lost in the semi-finals.Currently, Ravi has the silver medal. However, he has his eyes set on gold at Paris 2024 Like Ravi, Bajrang has set high standards for himself. Not many will realize the fact that the three-time World Championship medalist was disabled from a knee injury even before her appearance at the Games.Bajrang had sprained his right knee during a preliminary tournament in Russia and had been out of the field for 25 days before the Olympics. However, Bajrang was careful not to return empty-handed as he challenged a heavy tie on his knee to defeat Kazakh Daulat Niyazbekov 8-0 in the 65kg bronze medal match.As the search for a foreign coach continues, the Chhaggar-born fighter eagerly awaits the 2022 package, as he seeks to defend his titles at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, and eventually the gold medal in Paris.Aside from the duo, Deepak Bunya and Finch Phogat raised hopes of some medals, but young defenders Sonam Malik and Anshu Malik were not up to the task in the Japanese capital.Furthermore, the alleged involvement of two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar in the death of fighter Sagar Rana at Chhatrasal Stadium shook the entire nation. Sushil is now behind bars.Furthermore, the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Charan Singh painted the game in the wrong image by raising his hand for an older wrestler during the under-15 tournament in Ranchi.For cricket news to click here - Virat vs BCCI: We'll deal with it, says Ganguly
