Sports Awards Officially Announced

The Union Government on Thursday officially announced the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Arjuna Awards, Dhyan Chand Awards, Dronacharya Awards and Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar for the year 2010.

A large number of nominations were received for these awards this year, which were considered by 2 panels of eminent sportspersons and sports administrators - one headed by PT Usha for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Arjuna Awards, Dhyan Chand Awards and Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar; and the other by Ashok Kumar, for Dronacharya Awards.

Based on the recommendations of the committees and after scrutiny, the government approved to confer the following awards:

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2010: Saina Nehwal, for badminton

Arjuna Awards 2010: Joseph Abraham for athletics; Krishna Poonia for athletics; Dinesh Kumar for boxing; Parimrajan Negi for chess; Julan Goswami for women’s cricket; Deepak Kumar Mandal for football; Sandeep Singh for men’s hockey; Jasjeet Kaur Handa for women’s hockety; Dinesh Kumar for kabaddi; Sanjeev Rajput for shooting; Rehan Jehangir Poncha for swimming; Kapil Dev KJ for volleyball; Rajeev Tomar for wrestling; Rajesh Chaudhary for yatching; and Jagseer Singh for Paralympic (Athletics)

The Dhyan Chand Award 2010 awardees named were Satish Pillai for athletics; Kuldeep Singh for wrestling; and Anita Chanu for weightlifting.

The Dronacharya Awards for 2010 would be given to A K Kutty for athletics; Subhash B Aggarwal for Billiards and Snooker; L Ibomcha Singh for boxing; Ajay Kumar Bansal for hockey; and Captain Chandrup for wrestling.

The Rashtriya Khel Protsahana Puruskar 2010 will be awarded to the Services Sports Control Board for community sports identification and the nurturing of budding and young talent.

Tata Steel Limited will get the award for their financial support for sports excellence.

The Khel Evam Yuva Vibhag of the Government of Madhya Pradesh will be given an award for the establishment and management of sports academies of excellence; while the Services Sports Control Board has been recognised for its employment of sportsperson, and sports welfare measures.

The National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is given for spectacular performance in the year under consideration; the Arjuna Award is given for consistently outstanding performance for 3 consecutive years preceding the year of award; the Dhyan Chand Award for lift time contribution to sports development; and the Dronacharya Award for producing medal winners at prestigious international sports events in the past 3 years.

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is given to only one sportsperson in a year. The Arjuna Award is given to not more than 15, the Dhyan Chand Award to not more than 3, and the Dronacharya Award to not more than 5 persons.

The government had instituted a new award entitled Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar last year, with a view to recognizing the contribution made to sports development by entities other than sportspersons and coaches. This award has 4 categories - community sports development, promotion of sports academies of excellence, support to elite sportspersons and employment to sportspersons.

Apart from a medal and a citation, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee will receive a cash prize of Rs. 7.5 lakh. Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Dronacharya Awardees will receive statuettes, citations and cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh each. The recipients of the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar will receive a trophy and a citation.

The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially-organized function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, on 29 August 2010.

Courtesy: INN