Manu Bhaker, Gukesh among four athletes to receive Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award: Sports Ministry
The HinduDouble Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker has been chosen for the Khel Ratna award along with chess World Champion D Gukesh, hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and Paralympic gold medallist Praveen Kumar, as per the announcement made by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on Thursday. Long ago, the Union Sports Ministry proposed Saina Nehwal’s name and gave her the Khel Ratna award, even without any application or recommendation. Two other shooters, Swapnil Kusale, who won the rifle 3-position bronze, and Sarabjot Singh, who had won the mixed air pistol bronze with Manu in the Paris Olympics, have been chosen for the Arjuna award. Arjuna award: Jyothi Yarraji, Annu Rani ; Nitu Ghanghas, Saweety Boora ; Vartika Agrawal, Salima Tete, Abhishek Nain, Sanjay Rana, Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh ; Rakesh Kumar, Preeti Pal, Jeevanji Deepthi, Ajeet Singh, Sachin Khilari, Dharambir Nain, Pranav Soorma, Hokato Sema, Simran Sharma, Navdeep Singh, Nitesh Kumar, Thulasimathi Murugesan, Nithya Sivan, Manisha Ramadass, Kapil Parma, Mona Agarwal, Rubina Francis ; Swapnil Kusale, Sarabjot Singh, Abhay Singh ; Sajan Prakash ; Aman Sehrawat.