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Indian sharpshooter Gagan Narang received the country’s top sports award on Monday, when President Pratibha Patil presented him with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna at a ceremony in New Delhi.

Deshakalyan Chowdhury/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Indian shooter Gagan Narang in action during the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October 2010.

Mr. Narang, who won four gold medals at last year’s Commonwealth Games, becomes the latest addition to an illustrious list of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna winners that includes badminton star Saina Nehwal and, of course, cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who won in 1998 and 2008, respectively.
Mr. Dhoni and Mr. Tendulkar’s teammate, Zaheer Khan, received the Arjuna award on Monday, along with 18 other sportspeople. Only one person can win the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, which is given for “spectacular performance” in the year under consideration,” while the Arjuna–for “consistently outstanding performance” for three consecutive years–is usually awarded to 15 people.
This year there were a total of 19 Arjuna winners, to take into account outstanding Indian performances at the Commonwealth Games as well as the Asian Games, the government’s Press Information Bureau said in a statement on its Web site.
The Arjuna winners were:
Rahul Banerjee – Archery
Preeja Sreedharan – Athletics
Vikas Gowda – Athletics
Jwala Gutta – Badminton
M. Suranjoy Singh – Boxing
Zaheer Khan – Cricket
Sunil Chhetri – Football
Ashish Kumar – Gymnastics
Rajpal Singh – Hockey
Rakesh Kumar – Kabaddi
Tejeswini Bai – Kabaddi
Tejaswini Sawant – Shooting
Veerdhawal Khade – Swimming
Somdev Devvarman – Tennis
Sanjay Kumar – Volleyball
Ravinder Singh – Wrestling
Naib Ravikumar – Weightlifting
Wangkhem Devi – Wushu
The Arjuna award, like the Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awards for coaching and contributing to sports development, includes a cash prize of 500,000 rupees ($10,860), while the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna carries a cash prize of 750,000 rupees.
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Via: India Real Time