On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the winners of the National Sports and Adventure Awards 2023. He said that the winners’ amazing accomplishments and hard work should serve as an example for the rest of the country.
The Sports and Adventure Awards 2023 were given out by President Droupadi Murmu at a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday. There were several awards, such as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Awards-2023, the Dronacharya Awards-2023, the Arjuna Awards-2023, the Dhyan Chand Awards-2023, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards-2022, the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar-2023, and the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy-2023. The winners of the National Sports and Adventure Awards 2023 deserve a lot of praise. Their amazing accomplishments and unwavering devotion are an inspiration to the whole country. “They have not only done great work in their own areas, but they have also raised India’s flag high on the world stage,” PM Modi wrote on Twitter.
Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, India’s top men’s badminton doubles pair, were given the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award at an event on Tuesday. The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports gives the Khel Ratna every year as the country’s top sports award. ‘Sat-Chi’, the name given to Satwiksairaj and Chirag, won three Badminton World Federation (BWF) titles last year: the Korea Open, the Indonesia Open, and the Swiss Open. This was India’s first-ever badminton gold medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, and they also won the Asian Championships gold in April. The pair was named number one in the world by the BWF in October, making them the first Indian doubles team to ever do so. The Indian shuttlers helped their country win the Thomas Cup last year, which was an important and game-changing event. They also won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and a bronze medal at the World Championships.
This award has been given to five shuttlers so far: Pullela Gopichand in 2001, Saina Nehwal in 2010, PV Sindhu in 2016, Pramod Bhagat in 2021, and Krishna Nagar in 2022. At the beginning of the event, the Arjuna Award was given to stars like bowler Mohammed Shami from Star India, archers Ojas Pravin Deotale, Sheetal Devi, and Aditi Gopichand Swami, and wrestler Antim Panghal.
The Arjuna Award is India’s second-highest athletic honor. It is given to people who have done well in sports over the past four years and shown leadership, sportsmanship, and focus. The following people have won the Arjuna Award: Mohammed Shami for cricket, Ajay Reddy for blind cricket, Ojas Pravin Deotale for archery, Aditi Gopichand Swami for archery, Sheetal Devi for para archery, Parul Chaudhary and Murali Sreeshankar for athletics, Mohd Hussamuddin for boxing, R Vaishali for chess, Divyakriti Singh and Anush Agarwalla for equestrian, Diksha Dagar for golf, Krishan Bahadur Pathak for hockey, Sushila Chanu for hockey, Pinky for lawn ball, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar for shooting, Antim Panghal for wrestling, and A Ganesh Prabhakaran for malakhamb, Mahavir Saini for para running, Lalit Kumar for wrestling, RB Ramesh for chess, and Shivendra Singh for hockey.
The “Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games” is given to coaches who consistently do great work and help their athletes do well at international events. The lifetime category winners are Jaskirat Singh Grewal (golf), Bhaskaran E (kabaddi), and Jayanta Kumar Pushilal (table tennis).
The Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement goes to The ‘Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games’ is given to recognize athletes who have made a difference in sports through their play and who continue to promote sports events after they retire. The winners are Kavitha Selvaraj (kabaddi), Manjusha Kanwar (badminton), and Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey).
The winner of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2023 was Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar. The runners-up were Lovely Professional University in Punjab and Kurukshetra University in Kurukshetra. The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy is given to the university that does the best generally in tournaments between universities.
