Badminton
Satwik-Chirag selected for Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award
Emerging archery star Aditi Gopichand Swami and armless archer Sheetal Devi are among the several athletes who have been nominated for the Arjuna award
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (Source: BWF)
India's history-making men's doubles players Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been selected for the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award on Wednesday.
Satwik-Chirag, who achieved many firsts for Indian badminton in the last two years, became the first Indian doubles pair to attain the world no. 1 in October.
The Indian combo ended India's wait for the first badminton gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
They were also instrumental in India's best ever runner-up finish at the Asian Games men's team event. The duo also won the Badminton Asian Championships men's doubles title last year.
Earlier this year, they became the first Indian men's doubles pair to win a Super 1000 title at the Indonesia Open.
Meanwhile, emerging archery star Aditi Gopichand Swami and armless archer Sheetal Devi are among the several athletes who have been nominated for the Arjuna award.
Here are the nominees:
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, 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 and Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pinky (lawn ball), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting), Antim Panghal (wrestling), Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis).
Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award: Kavita (kabaddi), Manjusha Kanwar (badminton) Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey).
Dronacharya Award: Ganesh Prabhakaran (mallakhamb), Mahavir Saini (para athletics), Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Shivendra Singh (hockey).
