Hyderabad: The badminton men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj was honored with the country's most prestigious award Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award as the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the National Sports Awards (NSA) for the year 2023 on Wednesday.
India's pacer Mohammed Shami has bagged the Arjuna award for his exceptional performance throughout the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.
The NSA awardees are selected as per the consultation with the committee and after huge discussions, the government has announced the list of the sportspersons, coaches, and entities with the respective awards. The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9, 2024 (Tuesday).
The National Sports Awards are categorized into five different categories including the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award and Arjuna Award for Sportspersons, Dronacharya Award for coaches, Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award for sportspersons and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy for the universities.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Governor S Abdul Nazeer on Wednesday congratulated Satwiksairaj Rankireddy for being chosen for the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for 2023. He also hailed Ajay Kumar Reddy for being selected to receive the Arjuna Award under the blind cricket category.
The Governor highlighted that both Rankireddy and Ajay Kumar Reddy brought laurels to the state by winning these prestigious awards, conferred on them by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Nazeer noted that the duo made the people of Andhra Pradesh proud and wished them to win many such laurels in the future, said a press release from the Raj Bhavan.
Rankireddy hails from Amalapuram town in Konaseema district of the southern state's Godavari region. He formed a formidable doubles badminton team with Chirag Shetty.
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award winners:
- Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty and Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj (Badminton)
- Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 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 for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games 2023 (Regular Category)
- Lalit Kumar (wrestling)
- RB Ramesh (chess)
- Mahaveer Prasad Saini (para athletics)
- Shivendra Singh (hockey)
- Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (mallakhamb)
- Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games 2023 (Lifetime Category)
- Manjusha Kanwar (badminton)
- Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey)
- Kavitha Selvaraj (kabaddi)
- Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime achievement in Sports and Games 2023
- Guru Nanak Dev University - Amritsar (overall winner university)
- Lovely Professional University - Punjab (1st runner-up)
- Kurukshetra University - Kurukshetra (2nd runner-up)
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