By IANS,
New Delhi: Dashing Indian opening batsman Virender Sehwag, Olympic bronze-medal winning boxer Vijender Singh and world ranked badminton star Saina Nehwal were among the six sportspersons named for the Padma Shri award in the Republic Day honours list announced Monday.
Hockey player Ignace Tirkey, reputed cricket coach Ramakant Vithal Achrekar and India’s first Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan were the other three in the list.
The 31-year-old Sehwag is among the most explosive openers in the cricketing world. Sehwag is the first Indian to hit two triple centuries in Tests.
The India vice-captain, who has 13,000 international runs, received the Arjuna Award in 2002.
If it was nawab of Najafgarh who got the award in cricket, it was the boxer from another non-descript place Bhiwani, who got the honours having missed it last year.
Vijender has been silencing his critics with his consistent performance in the ring. He won the bronze in the World championship in September, the first ever medal for India in the event, and then became the world’s number one boxer in the middle weight (75kg) category, another first for India.
He was awarded the Khel Ratna along with Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar and women’s four-time world champion boxer Mary Kom last year.
A string of stupendous performances in the last two years saw 19-year-old Saina get the Padma Shri. The Hyderabad-based shuttler reached the quarterfinals in Beijing Olympics and her performance has only got better since then.
She created history last year when she became the first Indian to win a Super Series title in the Indonesian Open in Jakrata and also touched her career-high ranking of six in July. Saina was also awarded the Arjuna Award last year.
Tirkey, the experienced hockey midfielder, who hails from the tribal belt of Chhota Nagpur, has come a long way. He was the hero in Pakistan’s defeat in the final of 2003 Asia Cup, which was India’s first win.
There are few who do not know Achrekar, famous for coaching young cricketers at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park and, most importantly, known as the man who moulded Sachin Tendulkar to be the genius he is today. Vinod Kambli and Pravin Amre were the other two of his well known students. He was given the Dronacharya Award in 1990.
For Karthikeyan, receiving the award was more or less like a birthday gift as it comes less than a fortnight after he turned 33. The award provided the country’s foremost racing driver a soothing balm at a time when his father has been hospitalised due to a heart ailment.
Karthikeyan drove in Formula One for Jordan just one season and he finished the year with five points, missing a possible podium finish at the US Grand Prix where only three teams took part while others stayed away due to safety-related issues.
In 2006, he switched to Williams team as a test driver before exiting the Formula One scene at the end of the 2007 and moving on to A1 Grand Prix representing Team India. He subsequently made his debut in the Le Mans 24-hour series, driving for Audi.