BHUBANESWAR 29-Aug-2011 641
Weightlifting star Katulu Ravi Kumar became the seventh sportperson from Orissa to bag the coveted Arjuna Award at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi today. President Pratibha Devisingh Patil conferred the Award for the year-2011 to the young lifter, who now serves in Indian Army as Naib Subedar. The award carried a statuettes, citations and cash prize of Rs 5 lakhs.
A product of Berhampur-based Bira Hanuman Gymnasium, Ravi Kumar was nominated for the Arjuna Award for bagging gold medal with meet record in the New Delhi Commonwealth Games last year. Other six Orissa sportspersons to have bagged the Arjuna Award include woman cyclist Minati Mohapatra (1978-79), weightlifter Bijay Kumar Satpathy (1981), athlete Rachita Mistry (1998), hockey Olympians Dilip Tirkey (2002), woman hockey international Jyoti Sunita Kullu (2006) and former India hockey captain Ignace Tirkey (2009).
Ace shooter Gagan Narang was conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, the country`s highest sporting honour, which carried a statuette, citation and cash prise of Rs 7.5 lakhs. As many as sportspersons received the Arjuna Award, five got the Dronacharya Award and three took the Dhyan Chand Award. The Arjuna and Dronacharya awardees got statuettes, citations and cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each.
The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad trophy, given to the best University for its sports achievements in an academic year, was not presented for the first time in 54 years since its inception, as the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) had reportedly failed to finalise the winner.
LIST OF AWARDEES FOR THE YEAR 2011:
RAJIV GANDHI KHEL RATNA: Gagan Narang (Shooting).
ARJUNA AWARDS: Zaheer Khan (Cricket), Rahul Banerjee (Archery), Preeja Sreedharan (Athletics), Jwala Gutta (Badminton), Suranjoy Singh (Boxing), Sunil Chhetri (Football), Rajpal Singh (Hockey), Rakesh Kumar (Kabaddi), Tejaswini Sawant (Shooting), Virdhawal Khade [ Images ] (Swimming), Ashish Kumar (Gymnastics), Somdev Devvarman (Tennis), Ravinder Singh (Wrestling), Ravi Kumar (Weightlifting), Vikas Gowda (Athletics), Sandhya Rani (Wushu), Prasanta Karmakar (Swimming), Sanjay Kumar (Volleyball), Tejaswini (Kabaddi).
DRONACHARYA AWARDS: Inukurthi Venkateshwara Rao (Boxing), Devender Kumar Rathore (Gymnastics), Ramphal (Wrestling), Kuntal Roy (Athletics), Rajinder Singh (Hockey).
DHYAN CHAND AWARDS: Shabbir Ali (Football), Sushil Kohli (Swimming), Rajkumar (Wrestling).
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PHOTO: K Ravi Kumar receives the Arjuna Award from President Pratibha Devisingh Patil in New Delhi on August 29, 2011.
