Honoured to be awarded Khel Ratna Award: Neeraj Chopra

INDIAN athlete Neeraj Chopra, who made his countrymen proud in Tokyo Olympics this year by winning a gold in javelin throw, on Wednesday (3) said he is honoured to be chosen for the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, India’s lifetime achievements sporting honour. The award was formerly known as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and was recently renamed after hockey legend Dhyan Chand.

The 23-year-old Chopra, who became India’s first individual gold medallist at the Olympics in 13 years after Abhinav Bindra, said in a tweet, “Very honoured to be awarded the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna alongside some outstanding sportspersons. Aap sabhi ke sahyog aur support ke liye tahe dil se dhanyavad. Koshish ye hi rahegi ki aise hi apne performances se desh ke liya aur success haasil kar paun (I thank you all for your cooperation and support. I will try to deliver more such performances for my country)! Jai Hind.”

PR Sreejesh (Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images)

On Tuesday (2), India’s ministry of youth affairs announced the list for National Sports Award 2021. The recipients will get their awards from Indian president Ram Nath Kovind at a specially organised event at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on November 13.

A number of other sportspersons who brought India laurels in this year’s Olympic and Paralympic also featured in the list. Apart from Chopra, 11 other recipients of the aware include: Ravi Kumar (wrestling), Lovlina Borgohain (boxing), Sreejesh PR (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).

India produced their best show in both the events held in Tokyo 2020. While they returned with seven medals from the Olympic, including a bronze in men’s hockey, their medal haul at the Paralympic was also the best ever – 19.

Besides, all members of the Indian men’s hockey team which won bronze in Tokyo have been picked for the prestigious Arjuna Award with the exceptions of Sreejesh and Manpreet.

All men's Hockey India team, which won the historic bronze medal in Tokyo 2020 Olympics, has been awarded the Arjuna Award with the exceptions of PR Sreejesh and Manpreet Singh.

Dronacharya Award (coaching honour) in the lifetime category went to T. P. Ouseph, Sarkar Talwar, Sarpal Singh, Ashan Kumar and Tapan Kumar Panigrahi. Dronacharya Award in the regular category is awarded to Radhakrishnan Nair P, Sandhya Gurung, Pritam Siwach, Jai Prakash Nautiyal, and Subramanian Raman.

Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime achievement went to Lekha KC, Abhijeet Kunte, Davinder Singh Garcha, Vikas Kumar, and Sajjan Singh.

Punjab University, Chandigarh, will receive the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy for 2021.