New Delhi: Former Kerala athlete and Olympian Jincy Philip has won the Dhyan Chand Award as the National Sports Awards were announced on Friday.
The 43-year-old is a coach at the Lakshmibai National College for Physical Education in Karyavattom under the Sports Authority of India.
Jincy was part of the Indian 4x400m relay team which competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She was also a member of the Indian 4x400m quartet which won gold at the 2002 Busan Asian Games.
Jincy is the lone Keralite to feature in the awards list this year.
The five Khel Ratna winners for this year are cricketer Rohit Sharma, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, Paralympic gold-winner Mariyappan Thangavelu, table tennis player Manika Batra, and women's hockey team captain Rani Rampal.
The Sports Ministry decided against bestowing the Arjuna Award on former Khel Ratna winners Sakshi Malik and Mirabai Chanu, pruning the list to 27 but accepted an unprecedented five recommendations for the country's highest sporting honour this year.
Last week, the Justice (retd) Mukundakam Sharma-led selection committee had recommended 29 names for the Arjuna Award to the Sports Ministry.
The list also included Rio Olympics bronze medal-winning wrestler Sakshi and 2017 weightlifting world champion Mirabai, but the decision on bestowing the Arjuna on them was left to the discretion of Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju.
This was due to the fact that they had already won the Khel Ratna.
The decision to include their names raised eyebrows and attracted criticism.
In a first, the awards will be held virtually on August 29, the National Sports Day, instead of the Rashtrapati Bhavan this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Award winners: Khel Ratna: Rohit Sharma (cricket), T Mariyappan (para athletics), Manika Batra (table tennis), Vinesh Phogat (wrestling) and Rani Rampal (hockey).
Dronacharya Award (life-time category): Dahrmender Tiwari (archery), Purushotham Rai (athletics), Shiv Singh (boxing), Romesh Pathania (hockey), Krishnan Kumar Hooda (kabaddi), Vijay Bhalchandra Munishwar (para powerlifting), Naresh Kumar (tennis), Om Prakash Dhaiya (wrestling).
Regular category: Jude Felix (hockey), Yogesh Malviya (mallakhamb), Jaspal Rana (shooting), Kuldeep Kumar Handoo (wushu), Gaurav Khanna (para badminton).
Arjuna Award: Atanu Das (archery), Dutee Chand (athletics), Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy (badminton), Chirag Shetty (badminton), Vishesh Bhrijuvanshi (basketball), Manish Kaushik (boxing), Lovlina Borgohain (boxing), Ishant Sharma (cricket), Deepti Sharma (cricket), Sawant Ajay Anant (equestrian), Sandesh Jhingan (football), Aditi Ashok (golf), Akashdeep Singh (hockey), Deepika (hockey), Deepak (kabaddi), Kale Sarika Sudhakar (kho kho), Dattu Baban Bhokanal (rowing), Manu Bhaker (shooting), Saurabh Chaudhary (shooting), Madhurika Patkar (table tennis), Divij Sharan (tennis), Shiva Keshavan (winter sports), Divya Kakran (wrestling), Rahul Aware (wrestling), Suyash Narayan Jadhav (para swimming), Sandeep (para athletics), Manish Narwal (para shooting).
Dhyan Chand Award: Kuldip Singh Bhullar (athletics), Jincy Philip (athletics), Pradeep Shrikrishna Gandhe (badminton), Trupti Murgunde (badminton), N Usha (boxing), Lakha Singh (boxing), Sukhvinder Singh Sandhu (football), Ajit Singh (hockey), Manpreet Singh (kabaddi), Ranjith Kumar (para athletics), Satyaprakash Tiwari (para badminton), Manjeet Singh (rowing), Late Sachin Nag (swimming), Nandan Bal (tennis), Netarpal Hooda (wrestling).
(With inputs from PTI)