Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award

[prasen9]

Le Pehlwan or The Assassin for me. Still deciding. I am a huge fan but since it is titled sports, I am not voting for the happy one.

[Atithee]

As long as you didn't vote for Vishwanathan (you did, didn't you? ), I won't hold it against you - any of the other 5 are good in my mind.

I think you have to vote for the areas in order. You have to vote for useless Mayavati type politicians before you can get to the sports page... You may want to try again.

Thanks. I did but did not vote for Vishwanathan. Happy?

[jayakris]

Yes, as happy as the "happy one" in that page, who seems to be happy to sneak his way into getting listed with the real sports heroes, or from his second bringing a second plate of vadas .. Jay

PS: I know I am annoying the heck out of the Vishwanathan fans, and they are staying quiet to "get me" one of these days!

[PKBasu]

I voted for Vishwanathan Anand, our only undisputed world champion.

Sushil Kumar was second, in my reckoning, as he too is now a world champion, but Vishy has had the title longer, and retained the undisputed title in style this year.

[gbelday]

We will have to look at the performance of the shooters and archers to see if somebody compiled a good body of work in this year. Gagan Narang?

Gagan Narang it is!
Congrats also to Zak, Somi , Jwala and Sunil, and everyone else mentioned in this article!
http://www.rediff.com/sports/report/arj ... 110722.htm

[jayakris]

Congratulations to Gagan, but it should have gone to Somdev. Well, I knew it wouldn't. Jay

[arjun2761]

Congrats to Somdev for likely winning the prestigious Arjuna Award. Hopefully, the Khel Ratna will be in his future...

[sameerph]

This year shooter Ronjan Sodhi got this award.

However, there is controversy again-

Poonia cries foul over Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award

I feel Ronjan is much more of a deserving candidate & sad that it has to be contrversial every time even after selection is done by such emiment past players.

[Mugundan]

I agree Sameer. Ronjan is a more deserving candidate, though he does not have anything in 2012, the year in question. But then last year, Maken violated everything by instructing the committee to go for the Olympic medal winners while they were supposed to look for deserving candidates from 2011. Once that chain was disturbed, this sort of situation was bound to arise. It is ridiculous that every year someone or the other "demands" an award, and the ministry, ever willing to discuss these matters with the media, quite often gives the impression that they/minister would be willing to expand or amend the list of awardees. They should actually do away with committees and allow the minister to pick all the winners so that this farce comes to an end.

[sameerph]

Sania gets the Khel Ratna award this year. Well deserved for her performances over the last 1 year.

These are the list of Arjun awardees -

P R Sreejesh (hockey), Dipa Karmakar (gymnastics), Jitu Rai (shooting), Sandeep Kumar (archery), Mandeep Jangra (boxing), Babita (wrestling), Bajrang (wrestling), Rohit Sharma (cricket), K Srikanth (badminton), Swarn Singh Virk (rowing), Satish Sivalingam (weightlifting), Yumnam Santhoi Devi (wushu), Sharath Gaekwad (para-sailing), M R Poovamma (athletics), Manjeet Chhillar (kabaddi), Abhilasha Mhatre (kabaddi), Anup Kumar Yama (rollerskating).

[gbelday]

Congrats to all. But Rohit Sharma? . He probably has very mixed feelings today. I am sure he's deserving but I always cringe a bit when cricketers get any award these days.

I recently read that Niru was never nominated for the Arjuna award? What's up with that?

[sameerph]

2 London medalists, Sindhu and Sakshi along with Dipa Karmakar and Jitu Rai - all 4 of them get Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award this year.

This is the list -

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ranta 2016: PV Sindhu (badminton), Dipa Karmakar (gymnastics), Jitu Rai (shooting) and Sakshi Malik (wrestling).

Dronacharya Awards 2016: Nagapuri Ramesh (athletics), Sagar Mal Dhayal (boxing), Raj Kumar Sharma (cricket), Bishweshwar Nandi (gymnastics), S Pradeep Kumar (swimming, lifetime) and Mahabir Singh (wrestling, lifetime).

Arjuna Awards 2016: Rajat Chauhan (archery), Lalita Babar (athletics), Sourav Kothari (billiards and snooker), Shiva Thapa (boxing), Ajinkya Rahane (cricket), Subrata Paul (football), Rani (hockey), VR Raghunath (hockey), Gurpreet Singh (shooting), Apurvi Chandela (shooting), Soumyajit Ghosh (table tennis), Vinesh (wrestling), Amit Kumar (wrestling), Sandeep Singh Mann (para-athletics), Virender Singh (wrestling, deaf).

I think giving Khel Ratna to 4 sportsmen in 1 year is too much of a compromise. They have to select one person taking a firm decision on that.

[Omkara]

London medallist?

I agree it's too much. Khel ratna loses its sheen

[sameerph]

Oops, Rio medalists, I should have said.

Btw, Mahesh has been tweeting about injustice being done to Rohan Bopanna for not getting an Arjuna award as yet. Probably, AITA has to be blamed for that.

[gbelday]

I agree with Mahesh here. Rohan is a very deserving candidate for the Arjuna award! One more win in Rio and he would have gotten the khel ratna