India’s young shooter Manu Bhaker, who created history by winning two medals in the Paris Olympics, was awarded the country’s biggest sports award Khel Ratna on Friday. Apart from Manu, men’s hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh and chess player D Gukesh were also honored with this award. A total of 32 players were given Arjuna Awards.
India’s female shooter Manu Bhaker, who created history by winning two medals in the Paris Olympics-2024, was awarded the Khel Ratna Award on Thursday. Apart from her, India’s chess player D Gukesh was also awarded this award. Both were given this award by President Draupadi Murmi on Friday, January 17.
Indian hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh and Praveen Kumar, who won the gold medal in high jump in Paris
Paralympics, were also given the Khel Ratna Award at the National Sports Day Ceremony. There was also a controversy before these awards. There were reports that Manu Bhaker’s name is not for Khel Ratna, after which Manu expressed her displeasure.
Manu, Gukesh created history
The Paris Olympics was Manu’s second Olympics and this time she made up for it. Manu was very disappointed in the Tokyo Olympics, but this time this 21-year-old young shooter created history by winning two bronze medals. She won bronze in the 10m air pistol event in the mixed team event along with Sarabjot Singh. Apart from this, Manu had secured third place in the single event in the same event. She is the first Indian player to win two medals in the same Olympics.
D Gukesh recently won the World Chess Championship title. 19-year-old Gukesh became the youngest player to win this title. He won this title by defeating Ding Liren. Gukesh became only the second player from India to win this title. Before him, Vishwanathan Anand had won this title. The Indian hockey team won the bronze medal under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Singh. This was Team India’s second consecutive bronze medal.
32 players got Arjuna
Apart from all these, a total of 32 players were given Arjuna Award which is India’s second biggest sports award. Para athletes dominated the sports awards this time. India won a total of 29 medals in the Paris Paralympics, including seven gold medals.