President Ramnath Kovind recalled the spectacular journey of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand,
This year a whopping 74 were picked for the national honours, including an unprecedented five Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratnas and 27 Arjuna awardees.
President Ramnath Kovind recalled the spectacular journey of hockey wizard Dhyan Chand, who rose from humble beginnings to win an incredible three Olympic gold medals, to inspire the youth on National Sports Day.
Patiently sitting through the function, which lasted about an hour, and applauding every award winner when the citation was read, the President expressed admiration for the three female athletes, Manika Batra, Vinesh Phogat and Rani Rampal, who won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.He was equally happy about Mariyappan Thangavelu, the paralympic gold medallist, being part of the five awardees for the highest sporting honour.
Sports power
Addressing the nation from Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President was confident that India was on its way to becoming a sports power and meeting the target of figuring among the top-10 in the medals table of the Olympics in 2028.
The Arjuna and Dhyan Chand awardees, coaches, the Tenzing Norgay adventure award winners, the representatives of organisations that won the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar had assembled in Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Delhi, Hyderabad, Itanagar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune and Sonepat.
Connected online
They were all connected online by the National Informatics Centre, and the awards function was telecast live by Doordarshan.Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju was at Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi along with some of the awardees and made a welcome speech. He also announced an enhanced cash award of ₹25 lakh for the Khel Ratna, ₹15 lakh for the Arjuna and Dronacharya lifetime awards, and ₹10 lakh for the regular Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awards.
The Sports Minister said that the hike from ₹7.5 lakh for the Khel Ratna and ₹5 lakh for the other awards was because they needed a revision, having been fixed in 2008. The 60 awardees were given the citation, with the promise that the bronze statuette would be presented at a later date.
Addressing athletes and coaches who missed out, the Sports Minister reiterated that the awards took into account “the cumulative performance” over a span of four years, and therefore the deserving candidates had a bright chance of getting the award next year.
