The National Sports Awards for 2021 were distributed on November 13 evening by President Ram Nath Kovind including a record 12 Khel Ratna awards and 35 Arjuna Awards. Neeraj Chopra, India’s second individual Olympic gold-medallist, Shikhar Dhawan, Mithali Raj were amongst the recipients of the prestigious award. Olympic bronze-medallist Lovlina Borgohain was a special recipient as she collected both Arjuna award from 2020 and Khel Ratna award from this year. Members of the Olympic bronze-medallist Indian Hockey team were all awarded the prestigious Arjuna award as they ended India’s 41-year drought for an Olympic medal in the sport.
Borgohain, the winner of bronze medal at the Tokyo games in Boxing was overwhelmed with emotions as it was a big day for her and suggested that she still has work to do in the Olympic circuit. The Assam-born boxer dreams of winning an Olympic Gold for the nation. The 24-year-old became the second boxer to win an Olympic medal in the sport after Mary Kom's bronze medal in 2012 London Olympics.
Speaking exclusively to Sports Tak she said, “I will remember this year as it was my dream to go to the Olympics and win the medal. Although my dream to win an Olympic gold is still not complete, but to go further and bring an Olympic medal was a big thing for me. Khel Ratna is a big award in Indian sports, so to win this prestigious award is a huge thing for me. I wasn’t expecting much this year because last year I received Arjuna award and winning the Khel Ratna award came as a big surprise for me.”
Having won the medal in women's welterweight category, she also reflected on the impact of Covid-19 in preparation for the Olympics stating, “Despite Covid-19 we have done a great job and if there was no pandemic we would have done even better in the Olympics. So I think the coming time will see more changes and the upcoming Olympics will be even better.”
On the other hand, India women's ODI and Test captain Mithali Raj, recipient of Khel Ratna award talked to Sports Tak about the growing opportunities in the women cricket and stated that the upcoming Women’s World Cup next year would serve as the perfect opportunity for the coming generation to make their mark.
“If you play good cricket for India you will definitely stand a chance to represent the nation. The standards of the game have been maintained in both the formats. Next year we have World Cup and there is a good opportunity to perform well at this stage and inspire the upcoming generation,” Mithali said.
Indian Hockey team goalkeeper Parattu Sreejesh talked about the upcoming challenges for the team as he said, “The 2023 World Cup in Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) will be a big hurdle for us while Paris Olympics are also part of the itinerary, but our short term target remains the Asian Games, then 2023 World Cup and finally the Paris Olympics where we want to change the color of the medal."
