National Sports Awards 2023: Khel Ratna confirmed for Satwik-Chirag; Shami among 26 Arjuna Award recipients

The Sports Ministry on Wednesday gave its approval to the list of athletes set to be honoured in the National Sports Awards in New Delhi next month. Ace badminton men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are set to be bestowed with the prestigious Khel Ratna Award while India pacer Mohammed Shami is among the 26 recipients of the Arjuna Award. Satwik and Chirag recently won a historic gold in the Hangzhou Asian Games, adding to their rich haul that comprises a BWF World Championships bronze and two Commonwealth Games gold. Shami, on the other hand, was the standout bowler in the ICC World Cup with 24 wickets to his name, including a seven-wicket haul against New Zealand in the semi-finals. He finished on top of the wicket-takers’ list despite having been left out of the XI in India’s first four matches of the tournament, getting picked only after an injury to all-rounder Hardik Pandya. [caption id=“attachment_13423482” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Mohammed Shami took 24 wickets in the just-concluded World Cup. AP[/caption] The athletes will receive their awards from President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on 9 January. Here’s the full list of recipients of various awards in the upcoming event: List of National Sports Award winners: Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for 2023: Chirag Shetty and Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy (badminton). Arjuna Awards for 2023: Ojas Pravin Deotale (archery), Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery), Murali Sreeshankar (athletics), Parul Chaudhary (athletics), Mohameed Hussamuddin (boxing), R Vaishali (chess), Mohammed Shami (cricket), Anush Agarwalla (equestrian), Divyakriti Singh (equestrian dressage), Diksha Dagar (golf), Krishan Bahadur Pathak (hockey), Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pawan Kumar (kabaddi), Ritu Negi (kabaddi), Nasreen (kho-kho), Pinki (lawn bowls), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting), Esha Singh (shooting), Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (squash), Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis), Sunil Kumar (wrestling), Antim (wrestling), Naorem Roshibina Devi (wushu), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy (blind cricket), Prachi Yadav (para canoeing). Dronacharya Award (regular category)for outstanding coaches: Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Mahaveer Prasad Saini (para athletics), Shivendra Singh (hockey), Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (mallakhamb). Dronacharya Award (life-time category)for outstanding coaches: Jaskirat Singh Grewal (golf), Bhaskaran E (kabaddi), Jayanta Kumar Pushilal (table tennis). Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement: Manjusha Kanwar (badminton), Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey), Kavitha Selvaraj (kabaddi). Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2023: Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (overall winner university); Lovely Professional University, Punjab (1st runner -up), Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra (2nd runner-up).