NRAI recommends Ankur Mittal and Anjum Moudgil for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award

Double Trap World Champion Ankur Mittal and Olympic bound rifle shooter Anjum Moudgil have been recommended for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award on Wednesday, June 30, the National Rifle Association of India [NRAI] made an announcement. 

Moudgil is a 2018 World Championship silver medallist and was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2019. She has also broken the Commonwealth Games qualifying record by a significant margin where she scored 589. On 1 May 2019, Anjum claimed the world number 2 spot in women's 10m Air Rifle International Shooting Sport Federation rankings.

Mittal won the double trap world title in the 2018 World Championship, where he hit a score of 140 [+4] to create a world record, and was awarded the Arjuna Award in the same year.

In a statement by the NRAI, "The two had also been recommended in the same category last year."

NRAI recommendations for Arjuna Award

The current world number one in 10 m Air Pistol Men Abhishek Verma, world number one in 10 m Air Rifle Women Elavenil Valarivan and 50 m Pistol World Champion Om Prakash Mitherval have been recommended for the prestigious Arjuna Award.

The NRAI made no recommendations in the Dronacharya award category this year.

Besides recommendations from the national federations, athletes can also nominate themselves through online applications. The last date for submission is July 5.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had earlier decided to extend the last date of submission of application for the upcoming National Sports Awards 2021.

Earlier, the last date for submitting applications was 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.

The national sports awards are given away every year on August 29 to mark the birth anniversary of Indian hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand as the National Sports Day.

Last year, five athletes were awarded the Khel Ratna award for the first time in the same year, Manika Batra, Vinesh Phogat, Mariyappan Phangavelu, Rani Rampal and Rohit Sharma were the winners of the highest sporting award in the country.

Image Credits: Anjum Moudgil - Instagram/@indianshooting - Twitter