National Sports Awards 2023: Satwik-Chirag to get Khel Ratna; cricketer Shami, archers Sheetal and Aditi among Arjuna recipients

The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports informed in a press release that the athletes will receive their awards from the President of India Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 9 January 2024.

Chirag and Satwik had a memorable 2023 as they won the Asian Games gold medal (first ever in badminton for India at the event), the Asian Championships title, and the prestigious Indonesia Open Super 1000 title. They are also World Championships bronze medal winners and Commonwealth Games gold medallists from 2022.

“It was a fantastic year for us, whatever we wanted to do, we achieved those goals. When we started 2023, we wanted to win medals at the Asian Games, and be in the top 2 or 3 in the world. So really happy with that,” Satwik had said after their runner-up finish at China Masters.

Chirag had added: “The Asian Games gold was the most important title of the year, by far. First Super 1000, and the Asian Championships as well as becoming No.1 was important too, but definitely, Asian Games doubles gold and silver in team event stands out.”

Among Arjuna Award winners, pacer Shami, 33, had a spectacular run in the ODI World Cup, where India finished runners-up, losing to Australia in the final. Shami was the leading wicket-taker in the World Cup, with 24 wickets despite missing the first few matches in the tournament. In the process, he also became India’s leading wicket-taker in the tournament’s history.

The athletes selected for this year’s Arjuna award include hockey players Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu, archers Ojas Pravin Deotale and Aditi Gopichand Swami, boxer Mohammad Hussamuddin, chess player R Vaishali, golfer Diksha Dagar, shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Esha Singh, wrestlers Antim Panghal and Sunil Kumar, paddler Ayhika Mukherjee and para archer Sheetal Devi, among others.

Five coaches have been named for the Dronacharya Award in the regular category and three in the lifetime category. A noteworthy combination here is that of R Vaishali and RB Ramesh, where the former recently became India’s third female grandmaster in chess.

Full list of National Sports Award winners:

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for 2023: Chirag Shetty and Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy (badminton).

Arjuna Awards for 2023: Ojas Pravin Deotale (archery), Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery), Murali Sreeshankar (athletics), Parul Chaudhary (athletics), Mohameed Hussamuddin (boxing), R Vaishali (chess), Mohammed Shami (cricket), Anush Agarwalla (equestrian), Divyakriti Singh (equestrian dressage), Diksha Dagar (golf), Krishan Bahadur Pathak (hockey), Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pawan Kumar (kabaddi), Ritu Negi (kabaddi), Nasreen (kho-kho), Pinki (lawn bowls), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting), Esha Singh (shooting), Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (squash), Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis), Sunil Kumar (wrestling), Antim (wrestling), Naorem Roshibina Devi (wushu), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy (blind cricket), Prachi Yadav (para canoeing).

Dronacharya Award (regular category) for outstanding coaches: Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Mahaveer Prasad Saini (para athletics), Shivendra Singh (hockey), Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (mallakhamb).

Dronacharya Award (life-time category) for outstanding coaches: Jaskirat Singh Grewal (golf), Bhaskaran E (kabaddi), Jayanta Kumar Pushilal (table tennis).

Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement: Manjusha Kanwar (badminton), Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey), Kavitha Selvaraj (kabaddi).

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2023: Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (overall winner university); Lovely Professional University, Punjab (1st runner -up), Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra (2nd runner-up).