Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has conferred the National Sports awards to the athletes physically on November 13, 2021. The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind presented the awards to the sportspersons including India's Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra in a special function organised at Rashtrapati Bhavan. It was announced earlier this month that the award ceremony will be held physically following all the COVID-19 norms.
National Sports Awards are given every year to reward excellence in sports. The Khel Ratna Award 2021 will be given to 12 sportspersons including Neeraj Chopra (Athletics), Ravi Kumar (Wrestling), Lovlina Borgohain (Boxing), Sreejesh P.R (Hockey), Avani Lekhara (Para Shooting), Sumit Antil (Para Athletics), Pramod Bhagat (Para Badminton), Krishna Nagar (Para Badminton), Manish Narwal (Para Shooting), Mithali Raj (Cricket), Sunil Chhetri (Football), and Manpreet Singh (Hockey). The men's Hockey India players who made history by winning the bronze medal in Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been conferred with Arjuna Award with the exception of PR Sreejesh and Manpreet Singh.
The other athletes who received the Arjuna Award are Arpinder Singh (Athletics), Simranjit Kaur (Boxing), Shikhar Dhawan (Cricket), CA Bhavani Devi (Fencing), Monika Malik (Hockey), Vandana Katariya (Hockey), Sandeep Narwal (Kabaddi), Himani Uttam Parab (Mallakhamb), Abhishek Verma (Shooting), Ankita Raina (Tennis), Deepak Punia (Wrestling), Dilpreet Singh (Hockey), Harman Preet Singh (Hockey), Rupinder Pal Singh (Hockey), Surender Kumar (Hockey), Amit Rohidas (Hockey), Birendra Lakra (Hockey), Sumit (Hockey), Nilakanta Sharma (Hockey), Hardik Singh (Hockey), Vivek Sagar Prasad (Hockey), Gurjant Singh (Hockey), Mandeep Singh (Hockey), Shamsher Singh (Hockey), Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (Hockey), Varun Kumar (Hockey), Simranjeet Singh (Hockey), Yogesh Kathuniya (Para Athletics) Nishad Kumar (Para Athletics), Praveen Kumar(Para Athletics), Suhash Yathiraj (Para Badminton) Singhraj Adhana (Para Shooting), Bhavina Patel (Para Table Tennis), Harvinder Singh (Para Archery) and Sharad Kumar (Para Athletics).
The Dronacharya Award for the Life-Time Category were also presented on the occasion. It was presented to coaches TP Ouseph (athletics), Sarkar Talwar (cricket), Sarpal Singh (hockey), Ashan Kumar (kabaddi), and Tapan Kumar Panigrahi (swimming). The Dronacharya in the regular category was awarded to Radhakrishnan Nair P (athletics), Sandhya Gurung (boxing), Pritam Siwach (hockey), Jai Prakash Nautiyal (para-shooting), and Subramanian Raman (table tennis). The Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement went to athlete Lekha KC (Boxing), chess Grandmaster Abhijeet Kunte, Davinder Singh Garcha (hockey), Vikas Kumar (kabaddi), and Sajjan Singh (wrestling). Punjab University (Chandigarh) received the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy for 2021.
Krishna Nagar misses the ceremony
The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics gold medallist Krishna was named along with 11 other athletes for the prestigious Khel Ratna Award. But unfortunately, his mother passed away on Friday night (November 12) and the shuttler had to return home.
