Ace badminton doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, have been nominated for the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna while wrestler Antim Panghal ,cricketer Mohammed Shami, golfer Diksha Dagar are among 17 athletes recommended for the Arjuna Award .
Five badminton players have been conferred the Khel Ratna so far; Pullela Gopichand (2001), Saina Nehwal (2010), PV Sindhu (2016), Pramod Bhagat (2021) and Krishna Nagar (2021).
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won three BWF titles this year; the Swiss Open, the Indonesia Open and the Korea Open. The Indian duo also made history by winning India’s first gold medal in badminton at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in October and bagged the Badminton Asia Championships in April.
They also became the first Indian doubles pair in history to take the world No. 1 spot in the badminton rankings this October. Last year, the shuttlers helped the counry win the Thomas Cup, clinched the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and won a bronze medal at the World Championships.
Table tennis player Sharath Kamal was the only sportsperson to receive Khel Ratna last year. National sports awards selection committee recommended five names in 2020 and 11 in 2021.
Tokyo 2020 javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra, despite winning gold medals at the World Athletics Championships and Asian Games in 2023, could not be recommended for Khel Ratna as he has already won the award in the past.
Apart from nominating Rankireddy and Shetty for the Khel Ratna, the national sports awards selection committee recommended 17 sportspersons for the Arjuna Awards.
Cricketer Mohammed Shami, archer Aditi Swami, steeplechaser Parul Chaudhary, shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and wrestler Antim Panghal have been recommended for the Arjuna Award.
Young Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa’s coach RB Ramesh has been nominated for the prestigious Dronacharya Award.
National Sports Awards 2023: Players nominated
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award: Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (badminton)
Arjuna Award: Mohammed Shami (cricket), Ajay Reddy (blind cricket) Ojas Pravin Deotale (archery), Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Parul Chaudhary and M Sreeshankar (athletics), Mohd Hussamuddin (boxing), R Vaishali (chess), Divyakriti Singh and Anush Agarwalla (equestrian), Diksha Dagar (golf), Krishan Bahadur Pathak (hockey), Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pinky (lawn ball), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting), Antim Panghal (wrestling), Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis)
Dronacharya Award: Ganesh Prabhakaran (mallakhamb), Mahavir Saini (para athletics), Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Shivendra Singh (hockey)
Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award: Kavita (kabaddi), Manjusha Kanwar (badminton) Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey)