Double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, 18-year-old chess world champion D Gukesh, two-time Olympic medallist and men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh, and Paralympic gold medal-winning high jumper Praveen Kumar were on Friday conferred the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award by President Droupadi Murmu at the National Sports Awards ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
The 22-year-old Bhaker became independent India’s first athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics with her bronze-winning show in the 10m air pistol individual and 10m air pistol mixed team events in August last year.
Harmanpreet was a part of the national side that won bronze medals in the Tokyo as well as Paris Olympics. Praveen, on the other hand, upgraded his silver at the Japanese capital to gold in Paris. He was born with a short left leg.
The 18-year-old Gukesh was crowned the youngest-ever chess world champion after he beat China’s Ding Liren last month. He is only the second Indian after the great Viswanathan Anand to achieve this title. He also played a crucial role in India winning the men’s gold in the Chess Olympiad in September last.
Thirty-two athletes were honoured with the Arjuna Award out of which an unprecedented 17 were para-athletes.
The athletes selected for the Arjuna award included Paris Olympics bronze medal-winning group of wrestler Aman Sehrawat, shooters Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot Singh (Bhaker’s partner in the 10m air pistol mixed competition of Olympics) and the men’s hockey team players Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Sanjay and Abhishek.
The para-athletes outnumbered the able-bodied ones in the list this time due to the magnificent Paris Paralympics performance in which they returned with 29 medals, including seven gold and nine silver.
Khel Ratna comes with a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh, while the Arjuna and Dronacharya awards include a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh.
Among the most prominent Dronacharya winners this year, was shooting coach Deepali Deshpande, who mentored Kusale, and former national football manager Armando Colaco.
Dignitaries, including Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Parliamentary and Minority Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju, Sports Secretary Sujata Chaturvedi, were among those who attended the ceremony.