President Murmu Gives Away National Sports Awards At Rashtrapati Bhavan

With no Khel Ratna picked this year, decathlete Tejaswin Shankar along with Grandmasters Divya Deshmukh and Vidit Gujrathi were among the star Arjuna winners in attendance as President Droupadi Murmu presented the National Sports Awards at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday.

The little over 36-minute ceremony was attended by Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mansukh Mandaviya and Sports secretary Hari Ranjan Rao among others.

In all, 17 Arjuna awardees were chosen after an unprecedented re-evaluation of the recommendations made by a selection panel headed by former Supreme Court Judge Arun Kumar Mishra late last year.

The last time that the country did not have a Khel Ratna was in 2014.

World Cup-winning chess player Divya Deshmukh, Tejaswin and women’s doubles badminton players Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly were among the 17 sportspersons named for the Arjuna Award.

Among the winners in attendance at the ceremony were Deshmukh, Gujrathi, Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver-medallist boxer Narender Berwal (+92kg), and young deaf rifle shooter Dhanush Srikanth.

The awards were announced following a massive delay after a Ministry-initiated re-evaluation process to ensure only worthy names were honoured to “preserve the integrity of the awards.”

The 20-year-old Deshmukh is the first Indian woman to win the World Cup. Gujrathi was part of the gold-winning Indian team at the 2024 Chess Olympiad.

Tejaswin, who won a historic decathlon silver medal at the Asian Games in 2023 and followed it up with a second-place finish in the Asian Championships last year, recently won a path-breaking bronze in the Commonwealth Games despite battling a knee problem. He also won a bronze at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

He was among the athletes who criticised the delay in the announcement of the awards calling it disrespectful towards athletes.

In 2024, a record 32 athletes were conferred the Arjuna award, which included 17 from para-sports. This time, only two names from para-sports made the final cut.

Para club thrower Ekta Bhyan, who won a gold in the 2024 para world championships, and shooter Rudransh Khandelwal, who is a 2024 Para World Cup gold-medallist, were also among the awardees.

Ekta also won a silver in the world championships held last year in Delhi.

The list, however, did not feature any cricketer, which has been the case since pacer Mohammed Shami received the honour in 2023.

I Arumainayagam, who was a member of the 1962 Asian Games gold-winning football team, was the sole winner of the Arjuna Award for ‘Lifetime Achievement’.

The ministry named three Dronacharya awardees.

Boxing coach Chhote Lal Yadav, who was a part of the women’s national camp as well as the support staff of the legendary M C Mary Kom, was the most prominent name in the list.

For the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ honour in coaching, Dharmendra Yadav, who coaches the men’s national boxing squad, and wrestling coach Virender Kumar were chosen this year.

The Arjuna award makes the winner richer by Rs 15 lakh.

Last year, the Khel Ratna was bestowed on four athletes — world champion chess player D Gukesh, men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh, para-athlete Praveen Kumar and shooter Manu Bhaker.

The awards were traditionally presented on August 29 every year to commemorate the National Sports Day, which is also the birth anniversary of one of India’s greatest sportspersons — hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand.

However, after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the ceremony was conducted virtually due to health protocols, the date has not remained consistent.

This year, the award selection committee featured, among others, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Vice President Gagan Narang, former badminton player Aparna Popat and former hockey player M M Somaya.

Arjuna Awards: Tejaswin Shankar (Athletics), Priyanka Goswami (Athletics), Narender (Boxing), Vidit Gujrathi (Chess), Divya Deshmukh (Chess), Dhanush Srikanth (Deaf Shooting), Rajkumar Pal (Hockey), Surjeet (Kabaddi), Rudransh Khandelwal (Para-Shooting), Ekta Bhyan (Para-athletics), Arvind Singh (Rowing), Akhil Sheoran (Shooting), Treesa Jolly (Badminton), Gayatri Gopichand (Badminton), Lalremsiami (Hockey), Muhammed Ajmal (Athletics), Pooja (Kabaddi).

Arjuna Awards (Lifetime): Shri I Arumainayagam (Football)

Dronacharya Award: Parveer Singh, Chhote Lal Yadav, Neha Chavan

Dronacharya Award (Lifetime): Dharmendra Yadav, Virender Kumar.