National Sports Awards 2012-13

The National Sports Awards for 2012-13 were presented yesterday to the country’s top athletes and coaches to recognize and reward excellence in the field of sports at a specially organised function at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee conferred the National Sports Awards which comprises of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Dronacharya Awards, Arjuna Awards, Dhyan Chand Awards, Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy and Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar.

Ace shooter Ronjan Sodhi received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna—the country’s highest sporting honour. But this year’s awards were not without controversies Sodhi’s selection for the Khel Ratna triggered a protest from discus thrower Krishna Poonia and paralympics silver-medallist long-jumper H S Girisha. On top of that, 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.

Virat Kohli and the hottest prospect of Indian sports, shuttler P.V. Sindhu were the notable names who won this year’s Arjuna awards. In all 14 sportspersons were conferred the Arjuna award. The list also includes pugilist Kavita Chahal, squash player Joshna Chinappa, former hockey captain Saba Anjum, paddler Mouma Das, wrestler Neha Rathi , shooter Rajkumari Rathore, archer Chekrovolu Swuro, golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar, chess player Abhijeet Gupta, billiards and snooker star Rupesh Shah, wrestler Dharmender Dalal and para-athlete Amit Kumar Saroha.

The Dronacharya Awards, awarded for excellence in Sports Coaching, was presented to five eminent coaches whereas the Dhyan Chand Awards for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to 4 sports personalities.