Amid reports that two-time Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker has been shockingly ignored for this year’s Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, top sources at the Sports Ministry have said that the name is yet to be finalized. She asserted that she is likely to attend when the list is announced in 2016. A week’s time. In August, Baker won bronze medals in the 10m air pistol individual event and the 10m air pistol mixed team event, becoming the first athlete in independent India to win two medals in a single Olympic event. Reports that she had been omitted from the National Honor Award caused shock, with her family insisting that the application had been formally submitted.
“There is no final list of candidates as of now. Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will decide on the nomination in the next couple of days and the final list will likely include her name,” a ministry official said.
The award selection committee consists of a 12-member committee chaired by former Supreme Court judge Justice V. Ramasubramam. They include former athletes like women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal.
The ministry’s regulations allow athletes to nominate themselves rather than relying on federations or other institutions. However, the selection committee may consider names not included in the applicant pool.
Although the department insisted that Baker had not applied for the award, his father, Ram Kishan Barker, a chief engineer with the Merchant Navy, said Baker had followed due process.
“Olympic sports are not worth playing in India because despite winning two medals at the Olympics, Manu has been ignored for the Khel Ratna award. He is playing for his country and getting the prize money. There is no point in acquiring and seeking recognition as a result,” Ram Kishan told PTI.
“She has been continuously applying for all the awards like Khel Ratna, Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan in the last 2-3 years and I have proof of that. I am sure that she has applied this time as well. But I can’t prove anything because I’m at sea right now.
“But even if she is not, the committee needs to consider her in light of her achievements,” he argued.
He blamed the bureaucracy for the confusion. “We have a committee, but it is the bureaucrats who make the decisions. This is not how sport should be,” he said.
It has been learned that the same committee has recommended Indian hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh, who led the country to two consecutive Olympic bronze medals, as Khel Ratna.
Preveen Kumar, a para-athlete who set an Asian record and won a gold medal in the men’s high jump T64 class at the Paris Paralympics, has also been nominated for this honor.
The awards committee recommended 30 athletes for the Arjuna Award, including 17 from para sports.
Wrestler Aman Sehrawat, who won bronze in the men’s freestyle 57kg category, marksman Swapnil Kusare, who won bronze in the men’s 50m rifle three-position event, and Baker’s mixed team partner Sarabjyot Singh won the Arjuna Award. Recommended by.
Members of the bronze medal-winning Indian hockey team, Germanpreet Singh, Sanjay, Rajkumar Pal, Abhishek and one other player have also been nominated for the Arjuna Award.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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