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New Delhi: Olympic bronze medalist Indian men’s hockey team captain Manpreet Singh was on Tuesday included in the list of Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna awardees, taking this year’s tally of the country’s highest sporting award to 12. The award ceremony will be held on November 13 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Manpreet’s name was earlier recommended for the Arjuna Award but now he has joined veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh as the second hockey player in the list of Khel Ratna recipients.
Other sportspersons who received the Khel Ratna include Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra and Olympic silver medalist wrestler Ravi Dahiya. Female cricketer Mithali Raj has also been selected for the Khel Ratna Award. Most of the Arjuna awardees are silver medalists in Paralympic Games. These include cricketer Shikhar Dhawan.
According to the Sports Ministry, ‘The President of India will present the awards to the awardees on November 13, 2021 (Saturday) from 4.30 pm onwards in a specially organized ceremony at the Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan.’ This ceremony last year Kovid- 19 was held online due to the pandemic. A total of 10 coaches have been selected for the Dronacharya Award.
In Lifetime Achievement category, TP Osef (Athletics), Sarkar Talwar (Cricket), Sarpal Singh (Hockey), Ashan Kumar (Kabaddi) and Tapan Kumar Panigrahi (Swimming) have been selected for this award. The winners in the regular Dronacharya category are Radhakrishnan Nair P (Athletics), Sandhya Gurung (Boxing), Pritam Siwach (Hockey), Jai Prakash Nautiyal (Para Shooting) and Subramaniam Raman (Table Tennis).
Sajjan Singh (Wrestling) along with former world and Asian champion boxers Lekha KC, Abhijit Kunte (Chess), Davinder Singh Garcha (Hockey) and Vikas Kumar (Kabaddi) have been selected for the Dhyanchand Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The list of award winning players is as follows:
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award: Neeraj Chopra (Athletics), Ravi Kumar (Wrestling), Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing), PR Sreejesh (Hockey), Avani Lekhara (Para Shooting), Sumit Antil (Para Athletics), Pramod Bhagat (Para Badminton) , Krishna Nagar (Para Badminton), Manish Narwal (Para Shooting), Mithali Raj (Cricket), Sunil Chhetri (Football), Manpreet Singh (Hockey).
Arjuna Awards: Arpinder Singh (Athletics), Simranjit Kaur (Boxing), Shikhar Dhawan (Cricket), CA Bhavani Devi (Fencing), Monika (Hockey), Vandana Kataria (Hockey), Sandeep Narwal (Kabaddi), Himani Uttam Parab (Mallakhamb) ), Abhishek Verma (shooting), Ankita Raina (tennis), Deepak Poonia (wrestling), Dilpreet Singh (hockey), Harmanpreet Singh (hockey), Rupinder Pal Singh (hockey), Surendra Kumar (hockey), Amit Rohidas (hockey) ), Birender Lakra (hockey), Sumit (hockey), Neelkant 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), Simranjit Singh (Hockey), Yogesh Kathunia (Para Athletics), Nishad Kumar (Para Athletics), Praveen Kumar (Para Athletics), Suhash Yatiraj (Para Badminton), Singhraj Adhana (Para Athletics) Para Shooting), Bhavna Patel (Para Table Tennis), Harvinder Singh (Para Archery) and Sharad Kumar (Para Athletics).
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar: Manav Rachna Educational Institution and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. for promotion of sports through Corporate Social Responsibility.
