Table Tennis player Sharath Kamal Achanta chosen for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2022

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The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced the National Sports awards 2022 on 14 November 2022.Table Tennis player Sharath Kamal Achanta has been selected for the country’s highest sports award   Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. 25 Sports persons will receive Arjuna Awards.

The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organized function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 30th November, 2022.

National Sports Awards 2022

Major Dhyan Chand Award 2022

Sharath Kamal Achanta, Table Tennis Player 

Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2022: 

• Seema Punia (Athletics), 
• Eldhose Paul (Athletics), 
• Avinash Mukund Sable (Athletics), 
• Lakshya Sen (Badminton), 
• HS Prannoy (Badminton), 
• Amit (Boxing), 
• Nikhat Zareen (Boxing), 
• Bhakti Pradip Kulkarni (Chess), 
• R Praggnanandhaa (Chess),
•  Deep Grace Ekka (Hockey),
•  Shushila Devi (Judo), 
• Sakshi Kumari (Kabaddi), 
• Nayan Moni Saikia (Lawn Bowl), 
• Sagar Kailas Ovhalkar (Mallakhamb), 
• Elavenil Valarivan (Shooting), 
• Omprakash Mitharval (Shooting), 
• Sreeja Akula (Table Tennis), 
• Vikas Thakur (Weightlifting), 
• Anshu (Wrestling), 
• Sarita (Wrestling), 
• Parveen (Wushu), 
• Manasi Girishchandra Joshi (Para Badminton), 
• Tarun Dhillon (Para Badminton), 
• Swapnil Sanjay Patil (Para Swimming), 
• Jerlin Anika J (Deaf Badminton).

Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games 2022 

Regular Category: 

• Jiwanjot Singh Teja (Archery), 
• Mohammad Ali Qamar (Boxing), 
• Suma Siddharth Shirur (Para Shooting), 
• Sujeet Maan (Wrestling).

Lifetime Category:

• Dinesh Jawahar Lad (Cricket), 
• Bimal Prafulla Ghosh (Football), 
• Raj Singh (Wrestling).

Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime achievement in Sports and Games 2022: 

• Ashwini Akkunji C (Athletics), 
• Dharamvir Singh (Hockey), 
• B C Suresh (Kabaddi), 
• Nir Bahadur Gurung (Para Athletics).

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2022: 

• Identification and Nurturing of Budding and Young Talent category: TransStadia Enterprises Private Limited, 
• Encouragement to sports through Corporate Social Responsibility category: Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, 
• Sports for Development category: Ladakh Ski & Snowboard Association.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2022:

Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.

Indian Sports Award 

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 

• It is the highest sporting award for a sports person in India. The Khel Ratna is awarded for outstanding performances in sports for over a period of four years.
• It was earlier called as Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and its name was changed to Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2021.
• The award was started in 1991 -92 and the first sportsperson to be awarded was the legendary Chess player Vishwanathan Anand.  
• Pistol shooter Abhinav Bindra, who won the first-ever individual gold medal for India at the Olympics at Beijing 2008, is the youngest sportsperson to win the Khel Ratna. He was 18 years old when he got the award.
• Karnam Malleswari was the first Indian woman to receive the Khel Ratna in 1994-95.

Arjuna Award 

It was instituted in 1961. It is given to sportspersons for consistent good performance over a period of four years. 

Hockey player Anna Lumsden was the first woman to win the Arjuna Award. She was conferred the prize in 1961.

Dronacharya Award for Coaches 

• It is officially called the Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, for coaches who help athletes achieve excellence over a period of four years.
• The Dronacharya Award was first given in 1985, and the first Dronacharya Award winner was wrestling Coach Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat.
• The first woman to win the Dronacharya award was athletics coach Renu Kohli in 2002.

Dronacharya Lifetime award 

• It was instituted in 2011. 
• It is given to coaches who have helped sportspersons achieve excellence over a period of 20 years or more.
• The first recipient(s) of the Dronacharya (Lifetime) Award were athletics coach Kuntal Roy and hockey coach Rajinder Singh in 2011.

Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime achievement

It was instituted in 2002. It is given to a sports person for good performance and contribution towards the promotion of sports in an individual capacity. 

The first recipients of the Major Dhyan Chand Award were Olympian boxer Shahuraj Birajdar, Indian men’s hockey team player Ashok Diwan and Aparna Ghosh, an accomplished player and coach with the Indian women’s basketball team.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy

• It is the oldest National Sports Awards in India which was instituted in 1956–1957.
• The award is given to the University for Top Performance in inter-university tournaments over the last one year.
• Bombay University was the first winner of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy. 
• Guru Nanak Dev University from Amritsar, Punjab has won it a record 23 times.

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 

 It was instituted in 2009 .It is awarded to organisations or corporates (both private and public) and individuals for playing a role in the area of sports promotion and development over the last three years.

Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 

It was set up in 1994 in the memory of Tenzing Norgay. He is an Indian of Nepali origin who along with a New Zealand mountaineer Edmund Hillary scaled Mount Everest on 29 May 1953.

The award is given in adventure sports like mountaineering, skydiving, and open water swimming.