Hyderabad: Deepa Malik who had succeded to win a medal in Paralympics (Rio 2016), has been recommended along with Bajrang Punia for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
Previously, the 36-year-old was awarded with Padma Shri and Arjuna Award for her spectacular performances in the Paralympics games. She was the first woman to win a silver medal in the Shotput F53 category. Her personal best of 4.61 metres also came in the same category.
The 12 member award committee led by Justice (Retd.) Mukundakam Sharma finalised the two names yesterday. Previously the list constituted of 16 members which were later cut down to five nominations: Bjarang, Deepa, Vinesh Phogat, Neeraj Chopra and Manika Batra all was in the race of Khel Ratna awards.
Deepa holds 80 marks in the papers which is the highest as per the award standard. Along with Olympic games, Deepa has also managed to win bronze medals in the Javelin F53-54 and Shotput F51-52-53 category in the Asian Games. Former Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia initially did not agree with her name but later had to go with the majority.
