Sharath conferred with Khel Ratna; Pragg, Jerlin to receive Arjuna

CHENNAI: Table tennis veteran Sharath Kamal Achanta will be the only recipient of the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, the country’s highest sporting honour, while two other Tamil Nadu stars – chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa and para badminton player J Jerlin Anika – will receive the Arjuna award as the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the list of winners on Monday.

Besides Praggnanandhaa and Jerlin, 23 athletes are set to be conferred with the Arjuna award, the second highest sporting honour. The winners will receive the awards from President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on November 30.

Sharath, who is 40 but is ageing like fine wine, has bagged the prestigious Khel Ratna award for his ‘spectacular and outstanding performance over a period of four years’. In the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July-August, the legendary paddler returned home with four medals, including three gold.

In 2018, he had won three medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze) at the Gold Coast CWG and two (both bronze) at the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. On cloud nine after being named the “best sportsperson across the country”, Sharath said that he was quietly confident after he was nominated for the award.

“I was the best Indian at the recent Commonwealth Games. I think that not many athletes would have the number of medals I do in the last four years. If someone [with a similar tally] had won an Olympic medal, they would have overtaken me,” Sharath, only the second table tennis player after Manika Batra to win the Khel Ratna award, told DT Next.

“The award is being given to only one athlete this time. Getting the biggest award… especially at my age… I think it is recognition for the table tennis I have been playing,” added Sharath, who has set sights on the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Since becoming a Grandmaster in 2018, Praggnanandhaa has been making waves in the international chess circuit. The 17-year-old was an integral member of the India ‘B’ team that clinched bronze at the Chess Olympiad in Mahabalipuram earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Jerlin, 18, secured three gold medals at the Deaflympics in Brazil in May while also shining at the 2019 World Deaf Badminton Championship in China and the 2018 Asia Pacific Badminton Championship in Malaysia.