On 3 November, President Ram Nath Kovind presented awards to India’s best sportspersons at the 2021 National Sports Awards. The ceremony was held at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in Delhi.

He presented 12 sportspersons with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. This is India’s highest sporting honour (formerly known as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award). The awardees this year are:

Neeraj Chopra (India’s first Olympic gold medallist in athletics) and Mithali Raj (India women’s cricket captain). This year’s Olympic medallists Ravi Dahiya (wrestler) and Lovlina Borgohain (boxer) also won. The Khel Ratna awardees also include hockey players Manpreet Singh (captain of India men’s hockey team) and P R Sreejesh (veteran goalkeeper).

India football captain Sunil Chhetri also became the first footballer to win the Khel Ratna.

Moreover, the other Khel Ratna winners include Paralympic gold-winners Avani Lekhara (Shooting), Sumit Antil (Athletics), Pramod Bhagat (Badminton), Krishna Nagar (Badminton), and Manish Narwal (Shooting).

Other awards

Apart from the Khel Ratna, the President also presented the Arjuna Award to 35 sportspersons. They include Shikhar Dhawan (cricketer), Simranjit Kaur (boxing) and Deepak Punia (wrestling).

Moreover, he also presented the Dronacharya Award to outstanding coaches, as well as, the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement in sports.

The National Sporting Awards is usually held on 29 August every year. This is National Sports Day and it celebrates the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand. However, this year, the event was postponed as the Tokyo Paralympics were still going on.

 

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