The awards ceremony, usually held on August 29, was delayed this year due to the Hangzhou Asian Games from September 23 to October 8.
President Droupadi Murmu honoured India’s top athletes with the prestigious National Sports Awards at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Notable awardees included Mohammed Shami, Sheetal Devi, M. Sreeshankar, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, and Chirag.
The star badminton duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty received the coveted Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. Mohammed Shami and Sheetal Devi were honoured with the Arjuna Award, while Maheveer Prasad Saini and E. Bhaskaran were conferred with the Dronacharya Award.
The Sports Ministry had previously announced nominees for the annual sports awards in December.
Here’s a comprehensive list of the National Sports Awards 2023 winners:
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2023:
– Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj and Shri Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty for Badminton
Arjuna Award 2023:
– Aditi Gopichand Swami, Archery
– Ojas Pravin Deotale, Archery
– Parul Chaudhary, Athletics
– Sreeshankar M, Athletics
– Mohameed Hussamuddin, Boxing
– Shri Mohammed Shami, Cricket
– … (list continues with various other awardees)
Dronacharya Award 2023:
Regular Category:
– Lalit Kumar, Wrestling
– R. B. Ramesh, Chess
– Maheveer Prasad Saini, Para Athletics
– Shivendra Singh, Hockey
– Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar, Mallakhamb
Lifetime Category:
– Jashkirat Singh Grewal, Golf
– Shri Bhaskaran E, Kabaddi
– Jayanta Kumar Pushilal, Table Tennis
Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sports and Games 2023:
– Manjusha Kanwar, Badminton
– Vineet Kumar Sharma, Hockey
– Kavitha Selvaraj, Kabaddi
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy 2023:
– Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (Overall winning university)
– Lovely Professional University, Punjab (1st runner-up University)
– Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra (2nd runner-up University)