Women’s hockey team captain Rani nominated for Khel Ratna Award

New Delhi, June 2: Indian women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal, table tennis star Manika Batra, wrestling sensation Vinesh Phogat and Andhra Pradesh archer V. Jyothi Surekha have been noninated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award on Sunday.

The period of consideration for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour, is between January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2019.

RANI LEADS THE WAY

During this period, Rani led the team to historic victories in the Women’s Asia Cup in 2017, silver at the 2018 Asian Games and played a critical role in the FIH Olympic Qualifiers in 2019 by scoring the deciding goal that helped India qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

The team also climbed to a career-best ninth the FIH world rankings.

Rani, who is the first Indian to be named as the World Games Athlete of The Year, has also been the recipient of the Arjuna Award (2016) and Padma Shri (2020).

MANIKA TOO AT THE TABLE

Manika, who missed out on India’s highest sporting honour last year, is the first woman paddler from her country to win a singles gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. She achieved the feat in the 2018 edition in which she won as many four medals including two gold medal.

In the same edition held in Gold Coast, the 24-yearold had led India to its first ever women’s team gold at the Commonwealth Games. Five months later, the current world number 63 created more history by winning a mixed doubles bronze alongside Sharath Kamal at the Asian Games in Jakarta.

VINESH IN THE RING

Vinesh, the only Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for the Tokyo Games, was an easy pick but surprisingly the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has sent as many as five applications for Arjuna and four each for Dronacharya and Dhyanchand awards.

A panel formed by the Sports Ministry will shortlist the nominations received from various national federations with the awards to be presented on National Sports Day, August 29.

JYOTHI EYES BIG BOW

Jyothi, who has been representing India for the last decade has won 33 international medals, including three world championship medals, two Asian games titles amidst many other wins at the World Cups and Asian championships in archery discipline.

The Vijayawada girl played a key role in helping the Indian archery team to get to the No.1 spot in the rankings.

Jyothi was bestowed with the Arjuna award in 2017.

— Agencies