Sports ministry confirm the annual National Sports Awards for 2023 and India’s badminton duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will receive the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, the highest sporting honour in the country for athletes.
Based on the recommendations of a government-appoint panel, Sports ministry also gave its nod to confer the Arjuna Award to 26 sportspersons, including cricketer Mohammed Shami.
Also 5 coaches, including RB Ramesh who has shape the career of chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, will receive the Dronacharya Award and three others have confer the same honour in the lifetime category.
These awards will be given by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 9th January 2024.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy earn India’s first-ever badminton gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 that underline their medal aspirations at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Both also lift titles at the Asian Championships, Swiss Open, Indonesia Open and Korea Open besides reaching the final of the season-ending China Masters.
Their incredible year also lift them to the top of the world rankings charts, becoming the first Indian doubles pair to get this glory.
In the Arjuna awards list, Mohammed Shami is only one of the two cricketers, the other being blind cricketer Ajay Kumar Reddy.
The 33-year-old fast bowler had an ODI World Cup finishing as the top wicket-taker (24) despite missing the first four matches of the tournament where India lost in the final.
Mohammed Shami stole the show with his movement and pace and elevate the strength of India’s bowling unit.
While other Arjuna awardees include athletes Murali Sreeshankar and Parul Chaudhary, archers Aditi Swami and Ojas Pravin Deotale, shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Esha Singh, wrestlers Sunil Kumar (Greco-Roman) and Antim Panghal, paddler Ayhika Mukherjee, squash pro Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu and Roshibina Devi (Wushu).
All of them got medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Golfer Diksha Dagar and R Vaishali, Praggnanandhaa’s sister who recently became a Grandmaster, are other notable winners.
Para athletes Sheetal Devi (Archery) and Prachi Yadav (Canoeing) will also receive the Arjuna award.
After RB Ramesh, the Dronacharya Award will be given to Lalit Kumar (Wrestling), Mahaveer Prasad Saini (Para Athletics), Shivendra Singh (Hockey) and Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (Mallakhamb).
In the lifetime category, golf coach Jaskirat Singh Grewal and Bhaskaran E (Kabaddi) and Jayanta Kumar Pushilal (Table Tennis) will be getting a award.
