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New Delhi: Six athletes from Maharashtra were felicitated with the prestigious National Sports Awards for their contribution to the field of sports at the hands of the President of India, Draupadi Murmu at a special function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday.
The award function was organized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Athletes were awarded for achieving feats in various sports disciplines. Present at the event were Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister, Anurag Thakur.
National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports. Maharashtra’s six athletes were honoured with the Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games, Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches, Dhyan Chand Award for Coaches for their lifetime achievement in sports and games.
The outstanding athletes are Avinash Mukund Sable (Athletics), Sagar Kailas Ovhalkar (Mallakhamb), Swapnil Sanjay Patil (Para Swimming), Suma Siddharth Shirur (Para Shooting Coach) and Dinesh Jawaharlal Lad (Coach Cricket).
Feats of athletes and their award category
Dinesh Lad, a cricket coach was felicitated for his lifetime achievement coaching in Cricket. He was felicitated with the prestigious Dronacharya Award in Lifetime category. He has trained eminent cricketers like Rohit Sharma, Thakur, HS Badhan, Siddhesh Lad and many others. He runs his cricket academy at Shri Swamy Vivekanand High School Cricket Academy in Mumbai.
Mumbai’s Suma Shirur was honoured with the prestigious Dronacharya Award for being an outstanding coach in the Lifetime category (Regular) in the field of Para Shooting. She has trained Avni Lekhra, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar, Shahu Tushar Mane, Kiran Ankush Jadhav, Sunidhi Chauhan, Abhinav Shah, Akriti Dahiya and many others.
Olympic steeple-chaser Avinash Sable from Beed District, Avinash Mukund Sable received the prestigious Arjuna Award for his outstanding achievement in Athletics. He has won a silver medal in men’s 3000 m steeplechase at CommonWealth Games 2022 at Birmingham and has also won a silver medal in Asian Championship-2019 for men’s 3000m steeplechase.
Mumbai’s Sagar Ovhalkar was felicitated with Arjuna Award for his outstanding performance in Mallakhamb category. In 2019, he participated in the World Championship Pole Mallakhamb Long Set and Small Set. In world championship 2019, he bagged a silver medal in Rope Mallakhamb Long Set, and also won a Silver Medal in Single Championship in 2019.
Nerul’s Shubham Vanmali, an international Open Water Sea swimmer was felicitated with the prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Award for the Year 2021 in the ‘Water Adventure’ category for his achievement in crossing several channels across the world as one of the youngest Indian swimmers. This Award is considered as prestigious as the Arjuna Award. He has created several records and has been mentioned in the Limca Book of Records.
Kolhapur’s Swapnil Patil was felicitated with the Arjuna Award -2022 at the hands of the President of India, Draupadi Murmu in the Para Swimming category. Swapnil is a double medallist in the Asian Para event- 2018. He has bagged Silver medals in 100 m Breaststroke and 400m freestyle swimming.
The Awards include Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Awards-2022; Dronacharya Awards-2022; Arjuna Awards-2022; Dhyan Chand Awards-2022; Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards-2021; Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar-2022; and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy-2022.
Major Dhyan Chand Ratna Award 2022 was given to Sharath Kamal Achanta, Arjuna Awards to 25 Sportsmen, 4 Dronacharya Awards for outstanding coaches in regular category and three in Lifetime Category, 4 Dhyan Chand Awards for Lifetime achievement in sports and games, Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2022 to three firms and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy to Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar.
