Indian women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal is in the race for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna after being nominated by Hockey India on Tuesday.
If selected, Rani will be the first woman hockey player, and third from the sport, to get the prestigious award. The last hockey player to win the prestigious honour was Sardar Singh in 2017.
In table tennis, Manika Batra is recommended for Khel Ratna. She became the toast of the nation when she won four medals, including two gold, at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Important decisions
Meanwhile, the Sports Ministry took two important decisions on Tuesday. It decided to extend the last date for submission of applications from June 3, 2020, to June 22, 2020. The applications can be mailed to: spstomar@ nic.in or vsingh71@ gov.in .
Due to the lockdown, the Ministry decided to do away with the condition of submitting the applications only with the recommendations of the authorities/persons prescribed in the award scheme (amended as on 07.09.2018).
The eligible sportspersons are now permitted to self-apply.
The nominations:
Athletics: Khel Ratna: Neeraj Chopra (javelin).
Badminton: Arjuna: R. Satwiksairaj, Chirag Shetty and Sameer Verma; Dronacharya: S. Muralidharan and Bhaskar Babu; Dhyan Chand: Pradeep Gandhe and Manjusha Kanwar.
Chess: Arjuna: Vidit Gujrathi, S.L. Narayanan and Mallika Handa (para); Dronacharya: Prasenjit Dutta.
Hockey: Khel Ratna: Rani Rampal; Arjuna: Monika, Vandana Katariya and Harmanpreet Singh; Dhyan Chand: R.P. Singh and Tushar Khandker; Dronacharya: B.J. Kariappa and Romesh Pathania.
Table tennis:Khel Ratna: Manika Batra; Arjuna: Madhurika Patkar, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Manav Thakkar; Dronacharya: Jayanta Pushilal and S. Raman. Dhyan Chand: A. Radhika.
Wrestling: Khel Ratna: Vinesh Phogat; Arjuna: Deepak Punia, Rahul Aware, Sakshi Malik, Sandeep Tomar and Naveen; Dhyan Chand: Jai Prakash, Anil Kumar, Dushyant Sharma and Mukesh Khatri; Dronacharya: Virender Kumar, Kuldeep Malik, O.P. Yadav and Sujit Mann.
