New Delhi, August 17
Wrestler Bajrang Punia, a two-time World Championships medallist, and para-athlete Deepa Malik have been recommended for India’s highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
The 12-member committee, led by Justice (Retd.) Mukundakam Sharma, decided on their names today. The committee includes Bhaichung Bhutia, Anju Bobby George, Anjum Chopra and Kamlesh Mehta, besides those nominated by the Sports Ministry. It will decide on the Arjuna and Dronacharya award recommendations tomorrow.
Today the committee first pruned the Khel Ratna recommendations list from 16 to five — Bajrang, Deepa, Vinesh Phogat, Manika Batra and Neeraj Chopra. Manika’s name was being pushed for her medals at last year’s Asian and Commonwealth Games. She was left out after some members pointed out that she had been given the Arjuna Award for these very medals. Chopra’s name was removed for the same reason.
Bajrang was a unanimous choice — he had won silver at last year’s World Championships, to go with gold at the Asian and Commonwealth Games. Once his name was decided, Vinesh’s hopes ended as only one sportsperson from a discipline is given the prestigious award.
Deepa’s recommendation was not as clear-cut. On paper she had the highest marks (80) as per the awards scheme. Besides winning silver in shot put in the F53 classification, Deepa won two bronze medals (javelin F53-54 and shot put F51-52-53) at the Asian Games. Two members initially opposed her name but agreed when they realised not many in the committee agreed with them.
5 in Dhyan Chand list
The committee nominated five names for the Dhyan Chand Award, ranking them in order of priority, in case the Ministry decides to prune the list. The top nominee for the award is Manuel Fredericks, part of the hockey team that won bronze at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The other nominees are Arup Basak (table tennis), Nitin Kirtane (tennis), Manoj Kumar (wrestling) and Chhangte Lalremsanga (archery).
