New Delhi: Double Olympic-medallist Manu Bhaker and chess world champion D Gukesh were among four winners of the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award announced by the Sports Ministry, which also named an unprecedented 17 para-athletes in the list of 32 Arjuna awardees to honour their resounding success at the Paris Paralympics.
The other two Khel Ratna winners unveiled by the ministry on Thursday for the year 2024 were men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and para-athlete Praveen Kumar.
The awards will be conferred on the athletes by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 17.
The 22-year-old Bhaker became independent India’s first athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics with her bronze-winning show in the 10m air pistol individual and 10m air pistol mixed team events in August.
The announcement comes a few days after reports that Bhaker had been ignored for the Khel Ratna as the award selection committee did not recommend her due to the absence of an application from her.
The shooter later admitted that there may have been a lapse on her part while filing the nomination. Once the procedural issues were sorted, there was never any doubt that Bhaker would be among the awardees.
In the same Paris Games, Hamranpreet led the Indian hockey team to its second consecutive bronze medal.
The 18-year-old Gukesh, on the other hand, became the youngest-ever World champion while also helping the Indian team win a historic gold in the Chess Olympiad last year.
The fourth recipient, para high-jumper Praveen, was crowned the T64 champion in the Paris Paralympics. The T64 classification is for athletes who have one or both legs missing below the knee and rely on a prosthetic leg for running.
The Khel ratna awardees receive a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh along with a citation and a medallion. The Arjuna awardees are given Rs 15 lakh as cash reward, a statuette of Arjuna and a citation.
Arjuna for Paris medallists
The athletes selected for this year’s Arjuna award include Paris Olympics bronze medal-winning lot of wrestler Aman Sehrawat, shooters Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot Singh and the men’s hockey team players Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Sanjay and Abhishek.
The para-athletes outnumber the able-bodied ones in the list of Arjuna winners this time due to the magnificent Paris showing in which they returned with 29 medals, including seven gold and nine silver.
The official list also includes sprinter Jyothi Yarraji, javelin thrower Annu Rani, women’s hockey team captain Salima Tete, world champion boxers Nitu Ghangas and Saweety, veteran swimmer Sajan Prakash, Olympiad gold-winning chess player Vantika Agrawal and squash star Abhay Singh.
Among the para athletes, Paris Paralympics gold-medallists Dharambir (club throw), Navdeep Singh (javelin throw) and Nitesh Kumar (para badminton) are the prominent names in the record number of Arjuna winners.
Paris Olympics bronze-winning para-archer Rakesh Kumar, para-shooters Mona Agarwal and Rubina Francis also feature in the list among others.
The ministry also cleared three coaches for Dronacharya award in the regular category, including Olympic bronze-medallist Swapnil Kusale’s coach Deepali Deshpande.
The Dronacharya award in the lifetime category will be conferred on former India football manager Armando Colaco and badminton coach S Muralidharan.
The award is given to coaches to honour their outstanding work and for enabling athletes to achieve excellence in their chosen sport in top international competitions.
Murlikant Petkar gets Lifetime Arjuna
India’s first Paralympic gold-medallist Mulikant Petkar, who won the top honours in the 50m freestyle swimming event of the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics, was named for the Arjuna Awards (Lifetime).
An Army man, Petkar’s inspiring tale of resurrecting himself as a para-athlete after being disabled due to bullet wounds sustained during the 1965 India-Pakistan war, was recently turned into a biopic, ‘Chandu Champion’, starring Kartik Aaryan.
