Rio Olympics 2016 medallists PV Sindhu (badminton) and Sakshi Malik (wrestling) have been awarded the Khel Ratna award for 2016. The highest sporting award of the country has also been given to Dipa Karmakar and Jitu Rai.
Dipa Karmakar’s coach Bisweshwar Nandi is among six coaches who has been awarded the Dronacharya Award for 2016.
Virat Kohli’s coach Raj Kumar Sharma has also got the Dronacharya Award.
Others to receive the Dronacharya Award are: Nagapuri Ramesh (athletics), Sagar Mal Dhayal (boxing), Pradeep Kumar (swimming – lifetime) and Mahabir Singh (wrestling – lifetime).
PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik were the only medallists in Rio Olympics. While Sindhu became the first Indian woman ever to win a silver medal at the Olympics, Sakshi was the first Indian woman ever to win a wrestling medal(bronze) at the Summer Games.
Dipa Karmakar missed the vault bronze medal by a whisker but she had already created history when she became the first Indian to qualify for the final of a gymnastics event in the Olympics.
Jitu Rai, a Commonwealth Games champion, entered the final of one his shooting events but was largely a flop. His award comes as a bit of surprise.
Fifteen sportspersons have been awarded the Arjuna Award. Cricketer Ajinkya Rahane finds himself on a list that has two each from hockey, shooting and wrestling.
Para-athlete Sandeep Singh Mann and deaf wrestler Virender Singh were also given the Arjuna Award for this year.
The complete Arjuna Award list is as follows: 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 and Apurvi Chandela (shooting), Soumyajit Ghosh (table tennis), Vinesh Phogat and Amit Kumar (wrestling), Sandeep Singh Mann (para-athletics), Virender Singh (wrestling – deaf).
The Dhyan Chand Award 2015 has gone to Satti Geetha (athletics), Dung Dung (hockey) and Rajendra Pralhad Shelke (rowing).
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