New Delhi, August 29: Come the National Sports Day and it's time for sports mandarins to get together in ``honouring'' sports achievements of the previous year. On Tuesday, at the hallowed Ashoka Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan the President KR Narayanan gave away the awards to 27 such sportspersons.The other notable absentee included current Indian hockey captain Ramandeep Singh while athletes Gulab Chand and Gurmeet Kaur (currently participating at the Asian Track & Field Championship at Jakarta) couldn't attend the ceremony. However, promising swimmer Nisha Millet and badminton ace Pullela Gopi Chand attracted the biggest applause. With no cricketers nominated for the 1999 awards, players from other disciplines, specially Olympic sports received the much-needed recognition.Middle-distance runner Sunita Rani, hoping to perform at the Olympics, was the only athlete present on the occasion. Ironically, Gulab Chand's name was not even called out as he failed to nominate a person to receive the award on his behalf.Gulab, who won a silver in the 10,000m race on the opening day of the championships at Jakarta on Monday, will be given the award on his return.Twice Asian Games gold medallist boxer Hawa Singh, who died on August 14 at Bhiwani, was missed as his widow Angoori Devi received the Dronacharya award. While Hawa Singh died, his protege middleweight Jitender Kumar was present to receive the award, so was teammate Gurcharan Singh.Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award: Dhanraj Pillay (Hockey)Dronacharya: Kenneth Owen Bosen (Athletics), Late Hony Capt. Hawa Singh (Boxing), Ajay Kumar Sirohi (weightlifting)Arjuna Award: Gulab Chand, Gurmeet Kaur, Parduman Singh, Sunita Rani (athletics), Pullela Gopi Chand (badminton), Sajjan Singh Cheema (badminton), Gurcharan Singh (boxing), Jitender Kumar (boxing), Chiranjeev Milkha Singh (golf), Balbir Singh Kullar (hockey), Lt. Col (Retd.) Haripal Kaushik (hockey), Ramandeep Singh (hockey), V J Phillips (hockey), Balwinder Singh (kabaddi), Tirath Raj (kabaddi), Jagjit Singh (rowing), Vivek Singh (shooting), Nisha Millet (swimming), Sukhpal Singh (volleyball), Dalbir Singh (weightlifting), Ashok Kumar (wrestling), Aashim Mongia (yachting), G Venkataravanappa (physically handicapped)Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy: Guru Nanak Dev Univeristy (Amritsar)
