Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

Featured

National Sports Day Awards: Who gets what in 2019?

Here's a look into all the awardees of the coveted National Sports Awards 2019.

National Sports Day Awards: Who gets what in 2019?
X
By

P. Divya Rao

Published: 28 Aug 2019 7:31 AM GMT

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.

Commonwealth Games and Asian Games gold-medallist wrestler Bajrang Punia honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award
Commonwealth Games and Asian Games gold-medallist wrestler Bajrang Punia honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award

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
Gaurav Gill becomes the first Indian to win the Arjuna Award from motorsports (Source: Overdrive.in)
Gaurav Gill becomes the first Indian to win the Arjuna Award from motorsports (Source: Overdrive.in)

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).

Next Story