National Sports Awards announced; Shuttlers Chirag Shetty and Satwik Sai Raj Rankireddy to get Khel Ratna Award

The Government today announced the National Sports Awards 2023. Badminton players Chirag C Shetty and Satwik Sai Raj Rankireddy will be honoured with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.

Twenty-six sportspersons will receive the Arjuna Awards. They are Archers Ojas Pravin Deotale and Aditi Gopichand Swami, Para Archer Sheetal Devi, Athletes Sreeshankar M and Parul Chaudhary, Boxer Mohameed Hussamuddin, Chess player R Vaishali, Cricketer Mohammed Shami, Blind Cricketer Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy, Equestrian players Anush Agarwalla and Divyakriti Singh, Golfer Diksha Dagar, Hockey players Krishan Bahadur Pathak and P Sushila Chanu, Kabaddi players Pawan Kumar and Ritu Negi, Kho-Kho player Nasreen, Lawn Bowls player Pinki, Shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh and Esha Singh, Squash player Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu, Table Tennis player Ayhika Mukherjee, Wrestler Sunil Kumar and Antim, Wushu player N Roshibina Devi and Para Canoeing player Prachi Yadav.

Wrestling coach Lalit Kumar, Chess coach R. B. Ramesh, Para Athletics coach Mahaveer Prasad Saini,

Hockey coach Shivendra Singh and Mallakhamb coach Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar will be honoured with the Dronacharya Award in the regular category. Golf coach Jaskirat Singh Grewal, Kabaddi coach Bhaskaran E and Table Tennis coach Jayanta Kumar Pushilal will be honoured with the Dronacharya Award in the lifetime category.

Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games, will be given to Manjusha Kanwar for Badminton, Vineet Kumar Sharma for Hockey and Kavitha Selvaraj for Kabaddi.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2023 will be presented to Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar as the overall winning university, Lovely Professional University, Punjab is the 1st runner up University and Kurukshetra University, Haryana is the 2nd runner up University.

The awardees will receive their awards from President Droupadi Murmu in a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on the 9th of next month.

The applications were invited online and sportspersons, coaches and entities were permitted to self-apply through a dedicated Online Portal. A large number of applications or nominations were received for these awards this year, which were considered by the Selection Committee headed by Retired Judge of Supreme Court Justice A. M. Khanwilkar and consisting of members from eminent sportspersons, persons having experience in sports journalism and sports administrators.