Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
Asian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist wrestler, Bajrang Punia and Paralympics silver medallist Deepa Malik will receive this year’s Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. Apart from Khel Ratna award, 19 sportspersons were nominated for the Arjuna Award.
Deepa is the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympics when she bagged a silver in the shot put F53 category (for para-athletes who make seated throws and have full muscle power at their shoulder, elbow and wrist in the throwing arm) at 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.
She became paraplegic when a spinal tumour made walking impossible for her 17 years ago. She was previously honoured with the Arjuna Award in 2012 and Padma Shri in 2017. Last year, she shifted to javelin and discus throw and created a new Asian record in Jakarta, becoming the only Indian woman to win medals in three consecutive Asian Para Games (2010, 2014, 2018). She won a bronze each in the discus throw (F51-52-53) and javelin throw (F53-54) in the 2018 Asian Para Games.
The names of the sportspersons for these awards were decided by a 12-member selection committee which included among others . of Bhaichung Bhutia and MC Mary Kom..
As per guidelines, to be eligible for the award, a sportsperson should not only have had good performance consistently for the previous four years at the international level with excellence for the year for which the Award is recommended, but should also have shown qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline.
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Crickter Ravinder Jadeja is among the 19 sportspersons selected for the Arjuna awards .He was the standout player for India in their semi-final clash against New Zealand during the recently-concluded World Cup, which India lost by 18 runs. He is one of the key members of the Indian team that rose to world number one in Tests. The all-rounder has represented India in 41 Tests, 156 ODIs and 42 T20Is. He has amassed 3748 runs in all the three formats and has 402 wickets under his name.
The 18 other sportspersons for the Arjuna Award, include track and field stars Tejinder Pal Toor, Mohammed Anas, and Swapna Barman, footballer Gurpreet Sandhu.hockey player Chinglensana Singh Kangujam and shooter Anjum Moudgil.
The panel also nominated three names for the Dronacharya Award, including former badminton star Vimal Kumar, and three for the Dronacharya Award (lifetime category), including 2011 World Cup-winning cricketer Gautam Gambhir’s childhood coach Sanjay Bhardwaj.
Six-time world champion and Olympic bronze medallist boxer MC Mary Kom recused herself from the meeting to avoid conflict of interest as her personal coach Chhotelal Yadav was in contention for the Dronacharya Award. She attended the selection panel meeting, which nominated Bajrang for the Khel Ratna, but skipped the whole of second day’s proceedings.
Khel Ratna: Bajrang Punia (wrestling), Deepa Malik (para-athletics)
Arjuna Award: Tajinder Pal Singh Toor (athletics), Mohammed Anas Yahiya (athletics), S Bhaskaran (body building), Sonia Lather (boxing), Ravindra Jadeja (cricket), Chinglensana Singh Kangujam (hockey), Ajay Thakur (kabaddi), Gaurav Singh Gill (motorsports), Pramod Bhagat (para sports-badminton), Anjum Moudgil (shooting), Harmeet Rajul Desai (table tennis), Pooja Dhanda (wrestling), Fouaad Mirza (equestrian), Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (football), Poonam Yadav (cricket), Swapna Burman (athletics), Sundar Singh Gurjar (para sports-athletics), Bhamidipati Sai Praneeth (badminton), Simran Singh Shergill (polo).
Dronacharya Award (regular category): Vimal Kumar (badminton), Sandeep Gupta (table tennis), Mohinder Singh Dhillon (athletics)
Deepa Malik is honored with the Arjuna Award and Padma Shri. To know about her deepamalik