Odisha Hockey Star Deep Grace Ekka Recommended For Arjuna Award

Bhubaneswar: International hockey player from Odisha, Deep Grace Ekka, has been recommended for the Arjuna Award, the second-highest sporting honour of India, by the National Sports Awards Selection Committee.

Deep Grace has been playing as a defender in the Indian Women’s Hockey Team for the last several years.

So far, she has played 240 hockey matches and was a member of the Indian Women’s Hockey Team that won a bronze medal in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games this year.

She also represented the Indian Women’s Hockey Teams that won medals in the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games and was a member of the title-winning Indian Women’s Hockey Teams in the 2016 Women’s Asian Champions Trophy as well as the 2017 Asia Cup Hockey.

Currently, she is representing the railways in domestic hockey tournaments.

The 12-member committee recommended a total of 25 names, including Birmingham CWG men’s singles badminton champion Lakshya Sen, women’s World boxing champion Nikhat Zareen, Asian Games gold medallist pugilist Amit Panghal, chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, women wrestlers Anshu Malik and Sarita Mor and Nayanmoni Saikia, among others.

List of Indian athletes recommended for Arjuna Award 2022:

• Seema Punia (athletics)
• Eldhose Paul (athletics)
• Avinash Sable (athletics
• Lakshya Sen (badminton)
• HS Prannoy (badminton)
• Amit Panghal (boxing)
• Nikhat Zareen (boxing)
• Bhakti Kulkarni (chess)
• R Praggnanandha (chess)
• Shushila Devi (judo)
• Sakshi Kumari (kabaddi)
• Nayan Moni Saikia (lawn bowls)
• Sagar Ovhalkar (mallakhamb)
• Elavenil Valarivan (shooting)
• Om Prakash Mitharval (shooting)
• Sreeja Akula (table tennis)
• Vikas Thakur (weightlifting)
• Anshu Malik (wrestling)
• Sarita Mor (wrestling)
• Parveen (wushu)
• Manashi Joshi (para badminton)
• Tarun Dhillon (para badminton)
• Swapnil Patil (para swimming
• Jerlin Anika J (deaf badminton)

The award consists of a statuette, a certificate, a ceremonial dress, and a cash award of Rs 15 lakh.

Last year, an unprecedented 12 athletes, including Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, and 35 sportspersons were honoured with the Khel Ratna and Arjuna awards, respectively.