Hyderabad: The Indian badminton pair of Chirag Shetty and Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj were announced as Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award winners on Wednesday. The duo will be conferred the honours on January 9, 2024, in a specially organised function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is the country's highest sporting honour. Speaking exclusively to ETV Bharat, Chirag Shetty expressed his delight after getting the award saying that it is a truly big honour to receive the award.
"It's truly a big honour as a sportsperson to receive the award. All of us strive to win medals and to gain the best honours. It feels really really good. I am very delighted for the achievement. The last two years have been very good for us and we hope that his award will make us strive for something bigger," Chirag told ETV Bharat moments after the Union Sports Ministry announced the National Awards.
The Indian star badminton duo has been impressive with their performances. The pair became Number 1 in BWF Rankings this year achieving a historical feat. Also, they won a gold medal in the 2023 Asian Games becoming the first Indian men's doubles badminton pair to do so. The pair is also a bronze medalist in World Championships and a gold medalist in the Commonwealth Games.
"It is the first award won by an Indian badminton pair. I hope that it will inspire other youngsters to pick rackets and adopt the sport as a profession. Also, this achievement will motivate the other players to make their mark in the world of badminton and bring some more awards," he concluded.
Chirag's partner, Satwik also expressed delight after receiving the coveted award. Also, reflecting on the preparation for the upcoming Paris Olympics, the Indian shuttler stated that the pair will learn from their previous campaign and will give their best top excel in the 2024 Olympics.
"Very happy to achieve to be honoured with the Khel Ratna Award. It is a great feeling and that will motivate us to do well in the upcoming years. Olympics is a completely different tournament and predicting the winner is very difficult. In the last Olympics, no one would have expected the Chinese Taipei pair to win Olympics. We want to perform at our best in the Olympics but don't want to burden ourselves with the pressure of a victory. We will take some learning from our experience in the last experience and will improve upon it " he stated in an exclusive chat with ETV Bharat.
Reflecting on the changing landscape of doubles in the Indian badminton, Satvik explained that the scenario of Indian badminton is going through a change.
"Things have definitely changed. The landscape of doubles badminton has changed in the recent years for sure. Indians always prefer playing singles and priotirised it. Even last month, my relatives asked me, you don't play singles anymore?. So they even don't know that doubles is a big event. Now, a lot of youngsters are taking doubles seriously. Earlier, players used to start with singles and then switch to doubles if it didn't work out and first of the players who started playing doubles right from the start," he added.
"Gayatri Gopichand-Teresa Jolly, Tanisha Crasto-Ashwini Ponappa, Krishna-Pratik young talent doing good. I wish we can have two-three players in the doubles top 30 or something," he concluded.
Chirag and Satwik have joined star paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, former India skipper MS Dhoni, GM Viswanathan Anand, star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, India skipper Rohit Sharma, star batter Virat Kohli, ace footballer Sunil Chhetri, boxer Mary Kom, shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal, who have already received the prestigious award.
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