Mohammed Shami conferred Khel Ratna; Chirag, Ranikreddy to get Arjuna Award

NEW DELHI: The Sports Ministry on Wednesday put its stamp on the nominations for the annual sports awards, confirming the prestigious Khel Ratna honour for badminton players Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and the Arjuna award for 26 sports persons, including pacer Mohammed Shami.

The awards will be conferred on the athletes by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9.

Chirag and Satwik are Asian Games gold medallists, World Championships bronze winners, and Commonwealth Games silver medallists.

On the other hand, Shami, 33, had a spectacular run in the ODI World Cup, where India finished second-best, losing to Australia in the final.

Shami was the leading wicket-taker in the World Cup, with 24 wickets to his name in seven outings.

The athletes selected for this year’s Arjuna award include hockey players Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu, archers Ojas Pravin Deotale and Aditi Gopichand Swami, boxer Mohammad Hussamuddin, chess player R Vaishali, golfer Diksha Dagar, shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Esha Singh, wrestlers Antim Panghal and Sunil Kumar, paddler Ayhika Mukherjee and para archer Sheetal Devi, among others.

The Ministry also cleared five coaches for Dronacharya award in the regular category and three in life-time category.

The Dhyan Chand award in the life-time category will be conferred to three persons.

Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar is the recipient of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2023, while Lovely Professional University, Punjab and Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra are the first and second runner-ups.

LIST OF NATIONAL SPORTS AWARD WINNERS: Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for 2023: Chirag Shetty and Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy (badminton).

DRONACHARYA AWARD (REGULAR CATEGORY) FOR OUTSTANDING COACHES: Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Mahaveer Prasad Saini (para athletics), Shivendra Singh (hockey), Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (mallakhamb).

DRONACHARYA AWARD (LIFE-TIME CATEGORY) FOR OUTSTANDING COACHES: Jaskirat Singh Grewal (golf), Bhaskaran E (kabaddi), Jayanta Kumar Pushilal (table tennis).