Satwik-Chirag nominated for Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award

A total of 14 athletes have been nominated for Arjuna awards.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, India’s history-making men’s doubles duo, have been nominated for the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award on Wednesday December 13th. The award is given to the most outstanding sportspersons recognizing their remarkable achievements in the sport in the last two years.

The pair ended India’s wait for the first badminton gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 in the men’s doubles event. They were also instrumental in India’s best ever runner-up finish in men’s team event, where they lost to China by a narrow margin of 2-3.

While Satwik-Chirag were nominated for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, several Asian Games stars were nominated for the Arjuna award – Sudipti Hajela, Ojas Pravin Deotale, and Parul Chaudhary particularly stand out.

Ojas Pravin Deotale clinched historic gold medal in the individual compound event at the World Archery Championships 2023. He also won gold at the Asian Games 2022 and silver at the World Cup Berlin this season.

Parul Chaudhary hogged the limelight in athletics. She broke her own national record and breached the Paris Olympics 2024 qualifying standards for the women’s steeplechase event by finishing 11th at the World Athletics Championships 2023. She also won gold at the Asian Athletics Championships 2023 and silver at the Asian Games 2022.

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award

• Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (badminton)

Arjuna Award

• Mohammed Shami (cricket)
• Ajay Reddy (blind cricket)
• Ojas Pravin Deotale, Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery)
• Sheetal Devi (para archery)
• Parul Chaudhary and M Sreeshankar (athletics)
• Mohd Hussamuddin (boxing)
• R Vaishali (chess)
• Divyakriti Singh and Anush Agarwalla (equestrian)
• Diksha Dagar (golf)
• Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu (hockey)
• Pinky (lawn ball)
• Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting)
• Antim Panghal (wrestling)
• Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis)

Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award

• Kavita (kabaddi)
• Manjusha Kanwar (badminton)
• Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey)

Dronacharya Award

• Ganesh Prabhakaran (mallakhamb)
• Mahavir Saini (para athletics)
• Lalit Kumar (wrestling)
• RB Ramesh (chess)
• Shivendra Singh (hockey)

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