The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, presented the Sports and Adventure Awards 2023 to 26 athletes at a function held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9, 2024. The Awards included Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Awards-2023; Dronacharya Awards-2023; Arjuna Awards-2023; Dhyan Chand Awards-2023; Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards-2022; Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar-2023; and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy-2023.
Naorem Roshibina Devi in Wushu and Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam in Hockey, both from Manipur, were the only two athletes from the Northeast India to have won the prestigious Arjuna award.
Among the recipients, 16 years para archer Sheetal Devi and 28 years old para canoe athlete Prachi Yadav stood out with the gathering applauding with a deeper applause as the para athletes received the awards.
Sheetal Devi was conferred the Arjuna Award for her achievements in Para Archery where she won three gold medals and one silver medal in the 4th Para Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China in 2023 and One silver medal in the World Para Archery Championship held in Pilsen, Czech Republic in 2023.
Prachi Yadav received the Arjuna award for her achievements in Para Canoeing. She has won one gold medal and one silver medal in the 4th Para Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China in 2023; Three gold medals and one silver medal at the Asian Para Canoe Championship held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan in 2023 and one bronze medal in ICF Para Canoe World Cup held in Poznan, Poland in 2022.
President Droupadi Murmu also conferred the Arjuna Award, 2023 on Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy for his achievements in Blind Cricket. His achievements included one silver medal at the International Blind Sports Federation World Games held in Birmingham, United Kingdom in 2023 and Champion at the 3rd T20 Cricket World Cup for the blind held in India in 2022.
Held on August 29 to commemorate the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand, the 2023 award ceremony was rescheduled to January 9, following the Hangzhou Asian Games which was held from September 23 till October 8 last year.
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The Khel Ratna awards include a cash prize of ₹25 lakh while the Arjuna and Dronacharya awards include a cash prize of ₹15 lakh each.
The recipients of the awards are listed below:
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award: Chirag Shetty and Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy (badminton).
Arjuna Awards: Ojas Pravin Deotale (archery), Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery), Murali Sreeshankar (athletics), Parul Chaudhary (athletics), Mohammad 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 Panghal (wrestling), Naorem Roshibina Devi (wushu), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy (blind cricket), Prachi Yadav (para canoeing).
Dronacharya Award (regular category): Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Mahaveer Prasad Saini (para athletics), Shivendra Singh (hockey), Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (mallakhamb).
Dronacharya Award (life-time category): 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).
