Satwiksairaj-Chirag Become 1st Badminton Pair To Win Khel Ratna; Arjuna Award For Md Shami

New Delhi: India’s premier badminton men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been selected for Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, the country’s highest sports prize, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports announced on Wednesday.

The pair won at the Asian Games, Asian Championships, Swiss Open, Indonesia Open and Korea Open and were runners-up at China Masters. Satwik-Chirag also rose to No.1 in the BWF world rankings this year, a first for an Indian doubles pair.

They are also the first badminton doubles pair to get the award. Pullela Gopichand, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu have earlier been conferred with Khel Ratna.

Cricketer Md Shami, the highest wicket taker in the ODI World Cup with 24 scalps, featured among 26 sportspersons, who will receive the Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in sports and games in 2023.

After watching the first four games from the sidelines, Shami made an entry in India’s fifth league stage match against New Zealand and ended the tournament with 24 wickets in seven matches with the best figures of 7/57, joining an exclusive club of Glenn McGrath, Andy Bichel, Tim Southee and Winston Davis to have picked seven wickets in ODI World Cups.

Shami had three five-wicket hauls and a four-wicket haul in the tournament and also gained the best bowling figures by an Indian in WC history.

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2023

1. Chirag Chandrashekhar Shetty (Badminton)

2. Rankireddy Satwik Sai Raj (Badminton)

Arjuna Awards

1. Ojas Pravin Deotale (Archery)

2. Aditi Gopichand Swami (Archery)

3. Sreeshankar M (Athletics)

4. Parul Chaudhary (Athletics)

5. Mohameed Hussamuddin (Boxing)

6. R Vaishali (Chess)

7. Mohammed Shami (Cricket)

8. Anush Agarwalla (Equestrian)

9. Divyakriti Singh (Equestrian Dressage)

10. Diksha Dagar (Golf)

11. Krishan Bahadur Pathak (Hockey)

12. Pukhrambam Sushila Chanu (Hockey)

13. Pawan Kumar (Kabbadi)

14. Ritu Negi (Kabbadi)

15. Nasreen (Kho-Kho)

16. Pinki (Lawn Bowls)

17. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (Shooting)

18. Esha Singh (Shooting)

19. Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (Squash)

20. Ayhika Mukherjee (Table Tennis)

21. Sunil Kumar (Wrestling)

22. Antim (Wrestling)

23. Naorem Roshibina Devi (Wushu)

24. Sheetal Devi (Para Archery)

25. Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy (Blind Cricket)

26. Prachi Yadav (Para Canoeing)

Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches

1. Lalit Kumar (Wrestling)

2. R B Ramesh (Chess)

3. Mahaveer Prasad Saini (Para Athletics)

4. Shivendra Singh (Hockey)

5. Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (Mallakhamb)