For a sportsperson, recognition may be everything. It helps some to strive harder in the future while for others it is the culmination of long, sometimes lonely, journey. It's what they live for. And, the annual national sports awards, which were presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Saturday, continue to motivate Indian athletes.
For instance, a certain Ronjan Sodhi was conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award — India's highest sporting award — will be motivated to add to his back-to-back world titles. So would be the red-hot Virat Kohli who was one from the list of 14 Arjuna award winners. The ICC ODI cricketer of the year has already won a lot of laurels in his five-year career and Arjuna would egg him on to achieve more
P V Sindhu was busy with the ongoing Indian Badminton league final on Saturday so couldn't be present to receive her Arjuna. The others who won the laurel this year were World Championship bronze medallist boxer Kavita Chahal, squash player Joshna Chinappa, former hockey captain Saba Anjum, paddler Mouma Das, wrestler Neha Rathi and shooter Rajkumari Rathore and archer Chekrovolu Swuro, making it eight women winners while Rupesh Shah for billiards & snooker , Abhijeet Gupta for chess, Gagan Jeet Bhullar for golf, Dharmender Dalal for wrestler and para-athlete Amit Kumar Saroha, who received the biggest cheers from the gathering — which included Sports Minister Jitendra Singh, at the imposing building’s Durbar Hall.
Then, it's also about honouring ones who have dedicated their lives to sports. For them it is the lifetime achievement in the form of Dhyan Chand Award. India's first woman Olympian Mary D'souza Sequeira won the it foe athletics this year while former hockey player Syed Ali, wrestler Anil Mann and para-athlete Girraj Singh were the other winners.
And, a guru's role has been regarded of great importance in any athlete's life so to honour the teachers for their excellence Dronacharya awards are bestowed. There were five awards given this year. For archery, long-serving coach Purnima Mahato was awarded for her contribution. Others were women's hockey coach Narendra Singh Saini, wrestling coach Raj Singh, athletics coach K P Thomas and boxing coach Mahavir Singh. While the Khel Ratna awardee receives a statuette, citation andRs 7.5 lakh, the Arjuna, Dronacharya and the Dhyan Chand awardees get statuettes, citations and cash prize of Rs Rs lakh each.
There was some drama just hours before the awards when long-jumper Renjith Maheshwary's Arjuna award was held back after reports emerged of him being a dope-tainted athlete. Maheswary had won a bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games with a national record. This year's awards were marred by controversies from day one as Sodhi's selection for the Khel Ratna triggered a protest from discus thrower Krishna Poonia and paralympics silver-medallist long-jumper H S Girisha.
The choices were made by a selection committee headed by three-time billiards world champion Michael Ferreira and comprised noted sportspersons like limba Ram, V Devarajan, Zafar Iqbal, Vandana Rao, Anjali Bhagwat, Indu Puri, Shakti Singh, Ravi Shastri, Kripa Shankar Patel and Surinder Khanna besides a few other bureaucrats.