National sports awards likely to be delayed to include Tokyo Olympics medalists

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) is in plans to postpone the national awards to include possible Olympic medalists from the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Games. The move is set to be done for a couple of weeks to include the medalists in the charts. The final call on the matter is yet to be taken.

National Sports Awards to wait 

Considering the Tokyo Olympics start from 23rd July, the sports awards are now likely to be delayed to facilitate the Olympic medalists. The national sports awards given every year by the President of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on 29th August will be further moved as the Olympics will end on 8th August. The National Sports Awards include the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the Arjuna award, the Dronacharya award, and the Dhyan Chand award. The ceremony coincides with the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand.

A source in the know of the development told ANI: "This has been discussed in the meeting of concerned department officials. We have nominations but it will be on hold as we wanted to include Olympic medalists. Another meeting to finalise this will be happening soon but as of now, I can say that national awards are likely going to be delayed for this reason. Final call to be taken soon."

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had earlier decided to extend the last date of submission of applications for the National Sports Awards 2021. Earlier, the last date for submitting applications was decided to be June 21. The nominations/applications from the eligible sportspersons/ coaches/ entities/ universities were invited for the award and they were to be e-mailed as per an official statement from the ministry.

Last year, table tennis player Manika Batra, cricketer Rohit Sharma, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, hockey player Rani Rampal, and Paralympic high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu were awarded the Khel Ratna Award. It was the first time that five athletes received the honour in the same year. Currently, more than 120 Indian athletes have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. The Games which were originally slated to happen last year, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, 117 Indian athletes had qualified but could not better the six medals count from the 2012 London Games.  

IMAGE: PTI/ AP