President Droupadi Murmu conferred the National Sports Awards 2024 at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi today. World Chess Champion D. Gukesh, double medalist at the Paris Olympics Manu Bhaker, Men’s Hockey Team Captain Harmanpreet Singh, and gold medalist at the Paris Paralympics Praveen Kumar were honoured with the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
The award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over the past four years. Para-shooting coach Subhash Rana, Shooting coach Deepali Deshpande, Hockey coach Sandeep Sangwan, Badminton coach S Muralidharan and Football coach Armando Agnelo Colaco were presented Dronacharya Award.
The Arjuna Award was given to 32 Sportspersons. They include Athletes Jyothi Yarraji and Annu Rani, Boxers Nitu and Saweety, Chess player Vantika Agrawal, Hockey players Salima Tete, Abhishek, Sanjay, Jarmanpreet Singh and Sukhjeet Singh. Para-Archer Rakesh Kumar, Para Athletes Preeti Pal, Jeevanji Deepthi, Ajeet Singh and Sachin Khilari among others received the Award.
Veteran Athlete Sucha Singh and veteran para swimmer Murlikant Petkar were honoured with the Arjuna Awards (Lifetime). Chandigarh University received the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy as the overall top-performing university in the Khelo India University Games.
