President confers Khel Ratna on Narang

By IANS,

New Delhi : Ace shooter Gagan Narang was conferred India’s highest sporting honour – Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award – by President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapti Bhavan here Monday at a function where 19 other athletes were honoured with the Arjuna Award.


Support TwoCircles

Of the 19 Arjuna Awardees in various disciplines, Zaheer Khan (cricket), Ashish Kumar (Gymnastics), Vikas Gowda (Athletics) and Somdev Devvarman (Tennis) could not make it to the ceremony.

Not more than 15 Arjuna awards are given in any calendar year but keeping in view the performance of Indian athletes in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games last year, the limit was increased this time.

Shabbir Ali (Football), Sushil Kohli (Swimming) and Rajkumar (Wrestling) were bestowed the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime contribution to their respective sports.

The Dronacharya Awards went to Inukurthi Venkateshwara Rao (Boxing), Devender Kumar Rathore (Gymnastics), Ramphal (Wrestling), Kuntal Roy (Athletics) and Rajinder Singh (Hockey) for their accomplishments as coach.

Apart from a medal and citation, Narang received a cash prize of Rs.7.5 lakh. Arjuna, Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand Awardees got a statuette, citation and cash prize of Rs.5 lakh each.

The awards list:

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna: Gagan Narang (Shooting)

Arjuna Awards: Zaheer Khan (Cricket), Rahul Banerjee (Archery), Preeja Sreedharan (Athletics), Vikas Gowda (Athletics), Jwala Gutta (Badminton), Suranjoy Singh (Boxing), Sunil Chhetri (Football), Rajpal Singh (Hockey), Virdhawal Khade (Swimming), Tejaswini Sawant (Shooting), Ashish Kumar (Gymnastics), Somdev Devvarman (Tennis), Ravinder Singh (Wrestling), Ravi Kumar (Weightlifting), Sandhya Rani (Wushu), Prasanta Karmakar (Swimming), Sanjay Kumar (Volleyball), Rakesh Kumar (Kabaddi) and Tejaswini (Kabaddi).

Dronacharya Awards: Inukurthi Venkateshwara Rao (Boxing), Devender Kumar Rathore (Gymnastics), Ramphal (Wrestling), Kuntal Roy (Athletics), Rajinder Singh (Hockey).

Dhyan Chand Awards: Shabbir Ali (Football), Sushil Kohli (Swimming), Rajkumar (Wrestling)

SUPPORT TWOCIRCLES HELP SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND NON-PROFIT MEDIA. DONATE HERE