It was an overwhelming Olympic flavour at the Rashtrapati Bhawan as President Pranab Mukherjee honoured the medallists from Rio — P.V. Sindhu and Sakshi Malik — apart from Olympic finalists, Dipa Karmakar and Jitu Rai, with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on Monday.
While Sindhu and Sakshi with their medals were assured of the award, Dipa’s good work — she finished fifth in the World Championship and fourth in the Olympics, an unprecedented achievement for an Indian gymnast — had been acknowledged to have been on par.
Even if there had been no Olympics, shooter Jitu Rai would have walked away with the award as he had won everything in the last three years, including the World Championship silver and the Asian Games gold. He made the final of air pistol in Rio and missed the final of free pistol narrowly.
The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, given for the first time to four at a time, carries with it a cash prize of Rs.7.5 lakh each.
Lalita Babar, who made the final in the women’s 3000m steeplechase and set a national record as well, boxer Shiva Thapa, hockey players Rani Rampal and V.R. Raghunath, shooters Gurpreet Singh and Apurvi Chandela, table tennis player Soumyyajit Ghosh and wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who came on a wheelchair owing to a knee injury suffered during her bout in Rio, were the other Olympians, to get the Arjuna Award.
Archer Rajat Chauhan, cue sports specialist Sourav Kothari, cricketer Ajinkya Rahane, out on national duty in the US, Subrata Paul in football, Amit Kumar in wresting, Sandeep Kumar Mann and Virender Singh in para-athletics were the others to get the Arjuna Award which carries it with a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh.
The Dronacharya Award was presented to Raj Kumar Sharma, the coach of Virat Kohli, Nagapuri Ramesh, athlete Dutee Chand’s coach, Bishweshwar Nandi (Dipa’s coach), and Sagar Mal Dhayal in boxing. Swimming coach S. Pradeep Kumar and wrestling coach Mahabir Singh were chosen in the ‘lifetime achievement’ category.
The Dhyan Chand Award was presented to S. Geetha in athletics, Sylvanus Dung Dung in hockey and Rajendra Prahlad Shelke in rowing. All the awards carry a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh.
The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar was presented to Hockey Citizen Group, Dadar Parsee Zorostrian Cricket Club, Usha School of Athletics, Subroto Mukerjee Sports Education Society apart from Society for Transformation, Inclusion and Recognition through Sports (STAIRS).
Punjabi University, Patiala, was presented the Maulana Abul Kalam Trophy for the best university.
