After initial snub, Khel Ratna for Olympian Manu Bhaker

The government of India announced the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna for Olympain Manu Bhaker on Thursday, January 2. Bhaker’s name was not present in the initial list of awardees, raising many eyebrows.

The 22-year-old shooter from Haryana made history at the Paris Olympics 2024 by becoming the only Indian athlete to win two medals in the same edition of the international event.

She won a bronze each in the women’s 10m air pistol and 10m air pistol mixed team event — where she had paired with Sarabjot Singh — to script Olympic history for the country.

Also Read

Along with her, World Chess champion Gukesh D, Paralympics medallist Harmanpreet Singh (hockey) and Praveen Kumar (para-athlete) will be conferred with Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2024 by President of India Droupadi Murmu at a specially organised function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 17, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced.

Gukesh recently became the youngest-ever World Chess Champion after outclassing China’s Ding Liren in the title battle in Singapore. Harmanpreet led India to their second successive bronze medal in men’s hockey while Praveen bagged gold in the high jump T64 in the Paralympics.

Apart from the Khel Ratna, the sports ministry also named a 32-athlete list for the Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2024.

The list includes Jyothi Yarraji, Annu Rani, Nitu, Saweety, Vantika Agrawal, Salima Tete, Abhishek, Sanjay, Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Rakesh Kumar, Preeti Pal, Jeevanji Deepthi, Ajeet Singh, Sachin Sarjerao Khilari, Dharambir, Pranav Soorma, H Hokato Sema, Simran, Navdeep, Nitesh Kumar, Thulasimathi Murugesan, Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan, Manisha Ramadass, Kapil Parmar, Mona Agarwal, Rubina Francis, Swapnil Suresh Kusale, Sarabjot Singh, Abhay Singh, Sajan Prakash and Aman.

Former cyclist Sucha Singh and former para-swimmer Murlikant Rajaram Petkar were awarded Arjuna Awards (Lifetime) for outstanding performance in Sports and Games.

Subhash Rana (para-shooter), Deepali Deshpande (shooting) and Sandeep Sangwan (hockey) were named Dronacharya Award 2024 recipients.

S Muralidharan (badminton) and Armando Agnelo Colaco (football) were awarded the Dronacharya Award in the lifetime category.

Physical Education Foundation of India was given the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar while Chandigarh University (overall winner), Lovely Professional University (first runner-up) and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (second runner-up) were awarded Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2024.

The overall top-performing university in Khelo India University Games is given the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy.

(With inputs from IANS)

Get the latest updates in , , , , and on & by subscribing to our channels. You can also download our app for and .