Badminton doubles pair Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty and Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj will be conferred the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2023, the highest sporting honour of India. This was announced by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports on Wednesday along with the other winners of the National Sports Awards 2023.
Chirag and Satwik have won three Badminton World Federation (BWF) titles in 2023 and also made history by winning India’s first gold medal in badminton at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in October. The duo had earlier in April won the Badminton Asia Championships.
In October this year, the shuttlers became the first Indian doubles pair in history to take the world No. 1 spot in the badminton rankings. In 2022, Chirag and Satwik helped India win the Thomas Cup, won gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal at the World Championships.
The Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over the period of the previous four years.
The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organized function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 9th January 2024, the Ministry informed.
The Government will also award the Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2023 to 26 sportspersons. The award is given for good performance over a period of the previous four years and for showing qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline.
Besides, the Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games 2023 will be given to five coaches under ‘Regular Category’ and three coaches under ‘Lifetime Category’ for doing outstanding and meritorious work on a consistent basis and for enabling sportspersons to excel in International events.
The Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime achievement in Sports and Games 2023, which is given to honour sportspersons who have contributed to sports by their performance and who continue to contribute to promotion of sports event after their retirement, will be awarded to Manjusha Kanwar (Badminton); Vineet Kumar Sharma (Hockey); and, Kavitha Selvaraj (Kabaddi).
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar will be awarded the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy for overall top performing university in inter-university tournaments. Lovely Professional University, Punjab is 1st runner up University, while Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra is 2nd runner up University.
The Selection Committee for the awards was headed by Justice A. M. Khanwilkar, Retd. Judge, Supreme Court of India and consisted of members from eminent sportspersons, persons having experience in sports journalism and sports administrators.
