Manu Bhaker, Gukesh among four athletes to receive Khel Ratna award

New Delhi: Double Olympic medal winner Manu Bhaker, world chess champion D Gukesh,  hockey captain Harmanpreet Sngh and para-high jumper Praveen Kumar were on Thursday chosen for Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, the most coveted sports award in the country.

Seventeen para-athletes are among a list of 32 Arjuna Awards while two -- Sucha Singh (athletics) and Murlikant R Petkar (para-swimming) were chosen for Arjuna Award for lifetime.

Two coaches were chosen for Dronacharya (Lifetime) while three others were chosen for the regular Dronacharya award. No Karnataka sportsperson or coach is among the awardees.

The awards will be conferred on the athletes by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 17. The Khel Ratna awardees receive a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh along with a citation and a medallion while Arjuna awardees are given Rs 15 lakh as cash reward, a statuette of Arjuna and a citation.

The choosing of Bhaker, who won two medals in Paris Olympics, came days after reports that the 22-year-old shooter had been ignored for the highest national sports award in the country, as the award selection committee did not recommend her name due to the absence of an application from her. She later admitted that there could have been lapses on her part, capping the controversy.

Harmanpreet also returned from the Paris Olympics after steering the team to a bronze medal while Gukesh, at 18, had held his nerves to win the World Championship and help the Indian team win the gold in the Chess Olympiad last year.

Praveen, another Khel Ratna awardee, was crowned the T64 champion in the Paris Paralympics. The T64 classification is for athletes who have one or both legs missing below the knee and rely on a prosthetic leg for running. Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award’ is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over the period of the previous four years.

Badminton coach S Muralidharan and Football coach Armando Agnelo Colaco were chosen for Dronacharya (lifetime) awards while shooting coach Deepali Deshpande, hockey coach Sandeep Sangwan and para-shooting coach Subhash Rana were selected for Dronacharya award.

The athletes selected for the Arjuna award include wrestler Aman Sehrawat, shooters Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot Singh and the men's hockey team players Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Sanjay and Abhishek.

Among the para athletes, Paris Paralympics gold-medallists Dharambir (club throw), Navdeep Singh (javelin throw) and Nitesh Kumar (para badminton), Paris Olympics bronze-winning para-archer Rakesh Kumar, para-shooters Mona Agarwal and Rubina Francis are among Arjuna winners.