National Sports Awards 2023: Md Shami to get Arjuna Awards, Satwiksairaj-Chirag to receive Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports unveiled the National Sports Awards 2023 on Wednesday. The honourees will be felicitated by the President of India at a special event at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9, 2024, at 11:00 hours, states a press release from the ministry.

The Government, after careful scrutiny and on the recommendation of the Committee, has decided to bestow awards upon the following sportspersons, coaches, and entities. Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award goes to Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty for badminton. Known as 'Sat-Chi', the duo clinched three Badminton World Federation (BWF) titles this year, including the Swiss Open, the Indonesia Open, and the Korea Open.

They also bagged India's maiden badminton gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou and the Asian Championships gold in April. In October, they became the first doubles pair in Indian badminton history to be ranked world number one in BWF rankings. The Arjuna Award has been conferred upon Mohammed Shami (cricket), Ajay Reddy (blind cricket) Ojas Pravin Deotale (archery), Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Parul Chaudhary and Murali Sreeshankar (athletics), Mohd Hussamuddin (boxing), R Vaishali (chess), Divyakriti Singh and Anush Agarwalla (equestrian), Diksha Dagar (golf), Krishan Bahadur Pathak (hockey), Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pinky (lawn ball), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting), Antim Panghal (wrestling), Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis), Esha Singh (shooting), Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (squash), Sunil Kumar (wrestling), Naorem Roshibina Devi (wushu), Prachi Yadav (para canoeing), Pawan Kumar (kabaddi), Ritu Negi (kabaddi), Nasreen (kho kho).