TNI Bureau: The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday presented the National Sports & Adventure Awards at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

While, India’s para-athlete Deepa Malik conferred with country’s highest sporting honour – the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, her co-awardee and Asian and Commonwealth Games champion wrestler Bajrang Punia Punia skipped the awards ceremony as he is in Russia to prepare for the upcoming World Championships in Kazakhstan.

Similarly World’s No. 1 Para Badminton player from Odisha, Pramod Bhagat has received Arjuna Award from President Ram Nath Kovind.

National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports.

The awards are presented every year on August 29, in the National Sports Day. The day is celebrated on the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand.

List of National Sports Awardees 2019

Khel Ratna Award:

• Bajrang Punia (Wrestling)
• Deepa Malik (Para-Athletics)

Arjuna Award:

1. Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Athletics)
2. Md. Anas Yahiya (Athletics)
3. Swapna Barman (Athletics)
4. Ravindra Jadeja (Cricket)
5. Poonam Yadav (Cricket)
6. Pramod Bhagat (Para-badminton)
7. Sonia Lather (Boxing)
8. S. Bhaskaran (Bodybuilding)
9. Chinglensana Singh Kangujam (Hockey)
10. Ajay Thakur (Kabaddi)
11. Gaurav Gill (Motorsports)
12. Anjum Moudgil (Shooting)
13. Harmeet Desai (Table tennis)
14. Pooja Dhanda (Wrestling)
15. Fouaad Mirza (Equestrian)
16. Gurpreet Sandhu (Football)
17. Simran Shergill (Polo)
18. B. Sai Praneeth (Badminton)
19. Sundar Singh Gurjar (Para-athletics)

Dhyan Chand Award:

1. Manuel Fredricks (Hockey)
2. Arup Basak (Table Tennis)
3. Manoj Kumar (Wrestling)
4. Nitten Kirrtane (Tennis)
5. C. Lalremsanga (Archery)

Dronacharya (regular) Award:

• Vimal Kumar (Badminton)
• Sandeep Gupta (Table Tennis)
• Mohinder Singh Dhillon (Athletics)

Dronacharya (lifetime) Award:

• Merzban Patel (Hockey)
• Rambir Singh Khokhar (Kabaddi)
• Sanjay Bhardwaj (Cricket)

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar:

• Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation
• Go Sports
• Rayalseema Development Trust

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy:

Panjab University (Chandigarh)

Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award:

Susri Aparna Kumar