Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar: Decathlon athlete Tejaswin Shankar leads a list of 17 athletes who will be conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Awards as the sports ministry on Tuesday announced the National Sports Awards 2025.
The Arjuna Award list also includes India's premier women’s badminton doubles pair, Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand, FIDE World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh, track and field athlete Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, race walker Priyanak Goswami, Boxer Narender, Chess player Vidit Santosh Gujarathi, para shooter Dhanush Srikanth, Lalremsiami Hmarzote (Hockey), Rajkumar Pal (Hockey), Surjeet and Pooja (Kabaddi), Para shooter Rudransh Khandelwal, Para athlete Ekta Bhyan, rower Arvind Singh and shooter Akhil Sheoran.
Tejaswin Shankar created history at the Commonwealth Games by securing bronze in the decathlon, becoming the first Indian athlete to win a medal in the event at the Games.
Divya stunned the chess world by winning the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025, becoming the first Indian woman to claim the prestigious title. In the all-Indian final, Divya defeated legendary compatriot Koneru Humpy 1.5–0.5 in the rapid tie-breaks on Monday to script a fairytale ending in Baku.
"Based on the recommendations of the Selection Committee chaired by a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra, the Government has decided to confer awards on the following sportspersons, coaches and entities under various categories," the ministry said.
The ‘Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games’ is awarded for good performance over the previous four years and for demonstrating qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, and discipline.
Meanwhile, veteran Indian footballer Isaiah Arumainayagam will be honoured with the Arjuna Award (Lifetime). He participated in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games, where India won gold. He was also part of the Indian team that achieved second place at the 1964 AFC Asian Cup in Israel.
The ‘Arjuna Award (Lifetime)’ is given to honour and motivate those sportspersons who have contributed to sports by their performance and continue to contribute to the promotion of sports even after their retirement from active sporting careers.
Athletics coach Parveer Singh, boxing coach Chhote Lal Yadav and shooting coach Neha Nandkumar Chavan will be presented with the Dronacharya Award.
The ‘Arjuna Award (Lifetime)’ is given to honour and motivate those sportspersons who have contributed to sports by their performance and continue to contribute to the promotion of sports even after their retirement from active sporting careers.
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The National Sports Awards are given every year to recognise and reward excellence in sports.