New Delhi: Keeping in mind the good performance at the recently concluded London Olympics, the Rajiv Khel Ratna Award committee made an exception to the rules and recommended London Olympics medallists wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt and shooter Vijay Kumar for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, country’s highest sporting award.
While Dutt and Kumar were nominated for the Khel Ratna by the committee headed by Rajyarvardhan Singh Rathore, 25 other athletes were named for the Arjuna Award this year Arjuna Awards committee also headed by Rathore. The date for selection was extended till yesterday to accommodate the Olympians.
The Dronacharya award nominations will be out in Tuseday and after that the Sports Ministry will approve the list which more or less remains the same.
Generally the previous year’s performance is taken in to account while recommending the athletes for the awards but then it has been learnt that being the Olympic year, the committee made an exception.
The committee however overlooked the BCCI’s nomination of legendary Rahul Dravid who retired from international cricket this year.
As far as the Arjuna Awards it will be headlined by the star cricketer Yuvraj Singh, the man of the series for last year ICC World Cup, shooter
Anuraj Singh and Joydeep Karmakar who missed a medal by a whisker in the London Olympics, archer Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi, shuttlers P Kashyap and Ashwini Ponappa and ace hockey player Sardar Singh ,World No. 15 squash player Dipika Pallikal and star swimmer Sandeep Sejwal amongst others.
The list:
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award:
Vijay Kumar( Shooting), Yogeshwar Dutt (Wrestling)
Arjuna Awards:
Yuvraj Singh (Cricket), Deepika Kumari ( Archery), Bombayla Devi (Archery), Sudha Singh ( Athletics), Kavita Raut ( Athletics), Aditya Mehta (Billiards), Vikash Krishan (Boxing), P Kashyap (Badminton), Ashwini Ponappa (Boxing), Sardar Singh (Hockey), Joydeep Karmakar (Shooting), Omkar Singh (Shooting), Anuraj Singh (Shooting), Sandeep Sejwal (Swimming), Dipika Pallikal (Squash), Soniya Chanu (Weightlifting), Narsingh Yadav (Wrestling), Rajender Kumar (Wrestling), Geeta Phogat (Wrestling), Bimaljit Singh (Wushu), Deepa Malik (Parathelete), Ramkaran Singh (Paraathelete), Anoop Kumar (Kabaddi), Yashpal Singh (Judo), Samir Suhag (Polo).
By Indian Sports News Network