National Sports Day Awards: Who gets what in 2019?

Every year India observes National Sports Day on August 29, which coincides with the birthday of legendary hockey Olympian, Dhyan Chand Singh.The National Sports Day which is also known as the Rashtriya Khel Divas was first inducted into the long list of celebratory days in 2012. Ever since then it has been the centre of attraction for ardent sports lovers of the country. and honors the sports personalities who have made the nation proud by their achievements. This year, though the tradition remains the same, the list is added with a few 'firsts'. National Sports Day marks the celebration of the spirit of sportsmanship and propagating the message of various sports.

To make this day further noteworthy, the Rashtriya Bhawan organises the Special Award Ceremony in honour of the sporting heroes. The President of India takes this day to hand out the prestigious awards like the Arjuna Award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and the Dronacharya Award to the various sportsmen who have done the country proud in that year. Like every year, the names of the athletes are out.

Here is the list of the awardees-

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award: Along with world no.1 wrestler Bajrang Punia, para-athlete Deepa Malik is also being awarded this prestigious honour. This is the first time that a female para-athlete is being awarded the highest sporting honour. Last year, the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medalist, Bajrang Punia was deprived of this honor but this time, his name came out of a unanimous decision.

19 players have been selected for the prestigious Arjuna Award that only comes second to Khel Ratna in terms of the honour.

1. Tajinder Pal Singh Toor - Athletics
2. Mohammed Anas Yahiya - Athletics
3. S. Bhaskaran - Body- Building
4. Sonia Lather - Boxing
5. Ravindra Jadeja - Cricket
6. Chinglensensna Singh Kanghujam - Hockey
7. Ajay Thakur - Kabbadi
8. Gaurav Sing - Motorsports (This is the first time that a sports personality from motorsports is being awarded Arjuna award)
9. Pramod Bhagat - Para-badminton
10. Anjum Moudgil - Shooting
11. Harmeet Rajul Desai - Table Tennis
12. Pooja Dhanda - Wrestling
13. Fouaad Mirza - Equestrian
14. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu - Football
15. Poonam Yadav - Cricket
16. Swapna Burman - Athletics
17. Sunder Singh Gurjar - Para sports - Athletics
18. Sai Praneeth - Badminton
19. Simran Singh Shergill - Polo

Apart from these awards, the Dronacharya Award is given to the teacher or coaches of the players. There are two categories-

1. Regular category - Vimal Kumar(Badminton), Sandeep Gupta (Table Tennis) and Mohinder Singh Dhillon( Athletics)
2. Life-time category - Mezban Patel(Hockey), Rambir Singh Khokar (Kabaddi) and Sanjay Bharadwaj (Cricket

Dhyan Chand award is synonymous to the ‘Lifetime Achievement’ award in sports and is the highest on the list. This year, the award will be given to Manuel Fredrick (Hockey), Arup Basak (Table Tennis), Manoj Kumar (Wrestling), Nitten Kirrtane (Tennis) and C. Lalremsanga (Archery).