Virat Kohli, Mirabai Chanu bestowed with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award

India men’s cricket team captain Virat Kohli and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu on Tuesday were conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The annual National Sports Awards were bestowed on the best athletes that the country has seen in the past one year.

Shri Virat Kohli (Born in November, 1988) is one of the most outstanding Cricketers of the country and is a Captain of India Cricket team. He was player of tournament in ICC World T20-2016. He is the fastest cricketer to reach 25 centuries in ODI and fastest to reach 1000 runs in T20 matches. In internationals matches he has been Man of the series in India tour to Australia in 2015. He has record of 23 Centuries and 19 Half Centuries in Test Cricket and 35 Centuries and 48 Half Centuries in ODIs. In 2013 he was conferred Arjuna Award. In recognition of his outstanding achievements in the sport of Cricket, Virat Kohli is conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for the year 2018.

Kohli is the third cricketer to be honoured with the Khel Ra Ratna after batting legend Sachin Tendulkar (1997-1998) and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (2007).

Weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, the first Indian to win gold at the World Championships in more than two decades, received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on Tuesday, the highest sporting honour in the country. She had received the Padma Shri earlier this year, was chosen for the Khel Ratna following her gold medal in 48kg category at the World Weightlifting Championships last year. She also bagged the yellow metal in this year’s Commonwealth Games.

Besides the Khel Ratna and Arjuna awards, the President also gave away Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awards to coaches, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure awards, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy and Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar.

 List of Award winners:

 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna: Virat Kohli, Mirabai Chanu

Arjuna Awards: Neeraj Chopra (Athletics), Jinson Johnson (Athletics), Hima Das (Athletics), N Sikki Reddy (Badminton), Satish Kumar (Boxing), Smriti Mandhana (Cricket), Shubhankar Sharma (Golf), Manpreet Singh (Hockey), Savita (Hockey), Col. Ravi Rathore (Polo), Rahi Sarnobat (Shooting), Ankur Mittal (Shooting), Shreyasi Singh (Shooting), Manika Batra (Table Tennis), G Sathiyan (Table Tennis), Rohan Bopanna (Tennis), Sumit (Wrestling), Pooja Kadian (Wushu), Ankur Dhama (Para-Athletics), Manoj Sarkar (Para-Badminton)

Dronacharya Awards: Achaiah Kuttappa (Boxing), Vijay Sharma (Weightlifting), A. Srinivasa Rao (Table Tennis), Sukhdev Singh Pannu (Athletics), Clarence Lobo (Hockey Lifetime achievement), Tarak Sinha (Cricket Lifetime Achievement), Jiwan Kumar Sharma (Judo Lifetime Achievement), V.R. Beedu (Athletics Lifetime Achievement)

Dhyan Chand Awards: Satyadev Prasad (Archery), Bharat Kumar Chetri (Hockey), Bobby Aloysius (Athletics), Chougale Dadu Dattatray (Wrestling)