President Murmu presents Khel Ratna to Manu Bhaker, Gukesh, Harmanpreet, Praveen Kumar

Double Olympic-medallist shooter Manu Bhaker and teenage chess world champion D Gukesh received a euphoric round of applause as they walked up to receive the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna from President Droupadi Murmu in a glittering National Sports Awards ceremony at New Delhi on Friday (January 17).

The other two recipients of the country’s highest sporting honour were men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and Paralympic gold-winning high jumper Praveen Kumar when the annual honours were bestowed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi.

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Harmanpreet was a part of the national sides that won bronze medals in the Tokyo as well as Paris Olympics. Praveen, on the other hand, upgraded his silver at the Japanese capital to a gold last year in Paris. He was born with a short left leg.

Arjuna Award for 32 athletes

Thirty-two athletes are being honoured with the Arjuna Award out of which an unprecedented 17 are para-athletes.

The athletes selected for the Arjuna award include Paris Olympics bronze medal-winning group of wrestler Aman Sehrawat, shooters Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot Singh, and the men’s hockey team players Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Sanjay, and Abhishek.

The para-athletes outnumbered the able-bodied ones in the list of Arjuna winners this time due to the magnificent Paris Paralympics performance in which they returned with 29 medals, including seven gold and nine silver.

The 22-year-old Bhaker became independent India’s first athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics with her bronze-winning show in the 10m air pistol individual and 10m air pistol mixed team events in August last.

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The 18-year-old Gukesh became the youngest world champion ever by beating China’s Ding Liren last month. He is only the second Indian after the great Viswanathan Anand to achieve this feat.

The annual honours are decided by a points system in which the maximum emphasis is on performances delivered at the Olympics and the World Championships.

(With agency inputs)