PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar, Jitu Rai honoured with Khel Ratna Award

Olympic stars PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar were on Monday conferred India's highest sporting honour - the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna - along with shooter Jitu Rai in a gleaming awards ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. (Source: Twitter)

Shuttler PV Sindhu won the silver medal at the Rio Olympics to become the youngest Indian to win a medal at the Olympics and just the second badminton player after Saina Nehwal had won the bronze in 2012. (Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Wrestler Sakshi Malik was the first to score a medal at the Rio Olympics and opened India's medals tally after a poor run of over a week. She won the bronze after getting the luck of the draw as she entered the repechage stages and made the most of the chance. (Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Gymnast Dipa Karmakar came within touching distance of winning a medal after becoming the first female Indian to qualify for the Olympics and then became overall the first to qualify for the Final. In the vaults event, the Tripura girl was second after her jumps but dropped to fourth by the end to lose out by a narrow margin. (Express Photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Shooter Jitu Rai had a disappointing showing at the Rio Olympics with an eighth place finish in one event and failing to qualify in his pet event but over the past four years (criteria for the Khel Ratna), Jitu Rai deserved the award and one can argue that in a non-Olympic year, he would have been the alone recipient. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Wrestler Vinesh Phogat received the Arjuna Award from President Pranab Mukherjee. She had to pull out of competition at the Rio Games after an unfortunate knee injury during a bout. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

In all, four Khel Ratna Awards were handed out alongside 15 Arjuna Awards and six Dronacharya Awardees. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Sakshi Malik from Haryana became the first athlete at the Rio Olympics to get India's medals tally ticking with her bronze medal. Since her arrival, she's been celebrated and lauded for her achievement. (Express Photo by Renuka Puri)

Sakshi Malik helped her fellow wrestler Vinesh Phogat in getting ready as the latter got injured in Rio de Janeiro during the bout. (Express Photo by Renuka Puri)

In the morning, PV Sindhu paid tribute to Major Dhyan Chand on his birth anniversary alongside Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Vijay Goel (Source: PTI)