Vijender Singh, Harendra honoured at DSJA awards

NEW DELHI: Boxing star Vijender Singh was the unanimous choice for ‘Sportsman of the Year’ honour at the Delhi Sports Journalists Association’s annual awards where the body also launched its official website on Thursday.

India’s first Olympic and World Championships medallist was felicitated by the DSJA, which chose legendary wrestler and coach Mahabali Satpal for ‘Lifetime Achievement’ award.

“I am honoured to be here. I thank the media for following my sport and writing about it. I request you to write more on rural talent because they don’t have a voice,” Vijender said after being felicitated.

Satpal, under whose tutelage Sushil Kumar became India’s only double Olympic medal winning sportsperson, said, “Don’t just focus on stars, also focus on the youngsters, who need the inspiration that good media coverage provides. I got it way back in 1968 as a school kid.”

Hockey coach Harendra Singh, who guided the junior team to a historic World Cup triumph last year, was presented ‘Coach of the Year’ award. “I had told Hockey India President (Narinder Batra) that either I would take them to gold or tender my resignation. Thankfully, we won the gold,” he quipped.

India’s new cricket sensation Rishabh Pant was named ‘Emerging Sportsperson of the Year’ but he could not attend the function due to his India commitments. Fourteen veteran sports journalists were also felicitated. The list comprised stalwarts like Jagannath Rao, Harpal Singh Bedi, Roushan Sethi, Keval Kaushik, K Dutta, V Srivatsa, K P mohan, S Santhanam, Kuldeep lal, Arun Jain, Manoj Chaturvedi, Ashutosh Rai, Kuldeep Rathore and Suresh Kaushik.