New Delhi. President Draupadi Murmu presented the National Sports Awards 2025 at a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday. 15 sportspersons, including decathlon athlete Tejaswin Shankar and FIDE Women's World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh, were honored with the Arjuna Award. Meanwhile, veteran footballer Isaiah Aruminayagam was given the Arjuna Award (Lifetime).
Tejaswin and Divya created history
Tejaswin Shankar had created history by winning the bronze medal in the decathlon event of the Commonwealth Games. He became the first Indian athlete to win a medal in this event. At the same time, Divya Deshmukh made the country proud by winning the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 title. She became the first Indian woman to win this prestigious title. In the final match played in Baku, Divya won the title by defeating Indian veteran Koneru Humpy by 1.5-0.5 in rapid tie-break.
These players received Arjuna Award
Other sportspersons honored with the Arjuna Award include track and field athlete Muhammad Ajmal Variyathodi, race walker Priyanka Goswami, boxer Narendra, chess player Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, para shooter Dhanush Srikanth, hockey players Lalremsiami Hmarjort and Rajkumar Pal.
Apart from this, Kabaddi players Surjeet and Pooja, para shooter Rudransh Khandelwal, para athlete Ekta Bhayan, rower Arvind Singh and shooter Akhil Sheoran were also given the Arjuna Award. Indian women's badminton pair Trisha Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand could not attend the ceremony. Both are in Japan for the Japan Masters tournament.
Dronacharya Award to five
Coaches who have made outstanding contributions to sports were honored with the Dronacharya Award. These include athletics coach Parveer Singh, boxing coaches Chhote Lal Yadav and Dharmendra Singh Yadav, shooting coach Neha Nandkumar Chavan and wrestling coach Virendra Kumar. Dronacharya Award is given to those coaches who have made significant contribution in preparing the players for better performance at national and international level.
These players of adventure sports got respect
Baljeet Kaur and Skaljang Riggin were awarded the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2024 in the Land Adventure category, Rimo Saha in the Water Adventure category and Shiv Prasad Chamoli in the Lifetime Achievement category. These awards are given in four categories of Lifetime Achievement along with Land, Water and Air Adventure. Their objective is to recognize outstanding achievements in adventure sports and to encourage stamina, risk taking ability, teamwork and decision making in difficult situations.
National Sports Promotion Award to Army Paralympic Node
Pune based Army Paralympic Node was presented with the National Sports Promotion Award. Lieutenant Colonel Daljit Singh received this honor from President Draupadi Murmu. This award is given to those corporate entities and non-governmental organizations that have made significant contributions to the promotion and development of sports.
The ceremony was delayed by more than a year
National Sports Awards are presented every year to recognize outstanding performance and contribution in sports. The final list of award winners for the year 2025 was released by the Sports Ministry on August 18. The list was prepared on the basis of the recommendations of the selection committee headed by Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra, former judge of the Supreme Court of India. A large number of applications were received for the awards this year. The selection committee included well-known players along with experts related to sports journalism and sports administration.
It is noteworthy that this time the awards ceremony was held with a delay of more than a year. National Sports Awards are usually given on 29 August. This day is celebrated as the birth anniversary of Major Dhyan Chand, known as the magician of hockey. However, in Olympic, Commonwealth and Asian Games years, the date of the ceremony is decided based on the conclusion of these competitions and in consultation with the President's Secretariat.
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