Yippie! Virat Kohli, world champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu to receive prestigious “Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna” award
New Delhi, September 21: The gem of Indian cricket team and skipper Virat Kohli and world champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu are all set to receive the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna on September 25 this year.
Notably, the Sports Ministry on Thursday released the list of all the award winners. In a statement, Sports Ministry said, “Based on the recommendations of the Committee and after due scrutiny, the Government has decided to confer awards upon the following sportspersons, coaches and entities.”
According to the release, Indian skipper Virat Kohli and world champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu will receive this year’s prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. While star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra was among 20 sportspersons picked for the Arjuna Awards.
President Ram Nath Kovind will honour all the sportsperson at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on 25th September this year.
The List of Awardees:
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award: Virat Kohli and Mirabai Chanu.
Arjuna Awards: Neeraj Chopra, Jinson Johnson and Hima Das (Athletics); N Sikki Reddy (Badminton); Satish Kumar (Boxing); Smriti Mandhana (Cricket); Shubhankar Sharma (Golf); Manpreet Singh, Savita (Hockey); Ravi Rathore (Polo); Rahi Sarnobat, Ankur Mittal, Shreyasi Singh (Shooting); Manika Batra, G Sathiyan (Table Tennis); Rohan Bopanna (Tennis); Sumit (Wrestling); Pooja Kadian (Wushu); Ankur Dhama (Para-Athletics); Manoj Sarkar (Para-Badminton).
Dronacharya Awards: C A Kuttappa (Boxing); Vijay Sharma (Weightlifting); A Srinivasa Rao (Table Tennis); Sukhdev Singh Pannu (Athletics); Clarence Lobo (Hockey, Lifetime); Tarak Sinha (Cricket, Lifetime); Jiwan Kumar Sharma (Judo, Lifetime); V R Beedu (Athletics, Lifetime).
Dhyan Chand Awards: Satyadev Prasad (Archery); Bharat Kumar Chetry (Hockey); Bobby Aloysius (Athletics); Chougale Dadu Dattatray (Wrestling).
BACKGROUND:
Kohli, the world’s No.1 Test batsman as per the ICC rankings, has been in stupendous form in the past three years though he missed out of the top award despite nominations in 2016 and 2017. The 29-year-old Kohli has 6147 runs in 71 Tests with 23 centuries and 9779 runs in 211 ODIs, including 35 tons.
On the other side, Chanu was chosen for the prestigious award following her gold medal in 48kg category at the World Championships last year. She also bagged the yellow metal in this year’s Commonwealth Games but didn’t compete at the Asian Games due to injury.