New Delhi [India], December 24 (ANI): The two-time Olympic bronze medalist and Indian males’s hockey staff vice-captain Hardik Singh has been nominated for the nation’s high sports activities prize, the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, reported Olympics.com on Wednesday.
The award is the highest sporting honour a sportsperson can obtain and is offered yearly by the Union Youth Affairs and Sports Ministry. The nominated sportspersons obtain the award from the President of India.
The checklist of nominations was finalised on Wednesday by the awards choice panel that includes London 2012 medallist and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) vice-president Gagan Narang, Moscow 1980 Olympics gold medal-winning hockey participant MM Somaya and former badminton star Aparna Popat, as per Olympics.com.
So far, a complete of six hockey gamers have been honoured with India’s high sports activities prize: Dhanraj Pillay (1999-2000), Sardar Singh (2017), Rani Rampal (2020), PR Sreejesh (2021), Manpreet Singh (2021) and Harmanpreet Singh (2024).
Hardik, a mainstay of the Indian midfield since his senior staff debut in 2018, was a significant contributor for the bronze medal-winning groups on the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics.
Hardik has additionally been one of many stars in India’s gold-medal wins on the Asia Cup 2025, which earned India direct qualification to subsequent 12 months’s Hockey World Cup, the Asian Champions Trophy 2023 and the Asian Games.
At simply 27, Hardik has performed 164 matches for India.
Hardik’s particular person honours embody back-to-back Player of the Year awards on the Hockey India Awards in 2022 and 2023, the FIH Player of the Year 2023, and the Arjuna Award in 2021.
Last 12 months, it was Indian males’s hockey skipper and star drag flicker Harmanpreet Singh who was honoured with the Khel Ratna award alongside stars two-time Paris Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, chess world champion Gukesh D and para-athlete Praveen Kumar.
Also, a complete of 24 gamers have been nominated for Arjuna Awards, which features a yogasana athlete, Aarti Pal, for the primary time ever. She is the present nationwide and Asian champion in yogasana, which can characteristic as an indication sport on the Asian Games in Japan subsequent 12 months.b
Rifle shooter Mehuli Ghosh, gymnast Pranati Nayak and India’s top-ranked girls’s badminton pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand are different nominees.
Notably, no cricketer reduce nominations this 12 months. Indian tempo veteran Mohammed Shami acquired the Arjuna Award in 2023.
The nominations for the Dronacharya Award and the Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award are anticipated to be introduced later.
*National Sports Awards 2025 – checklist of nominations
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award: Hardik Singh (hockey)
Arjuna Award: Tejaswin Shankar (athletics), Priyanka (athletics), Narender (boxing), Vidit Gujrathi (chess), Divya Deshmukh (chess), Dhanush Srikanth (deaf capturing), Pranati Nayak (gymnastics), Rajkumar Pal (hockey), Surjeet (kabaddi), Nirmala Bhati (kho kho), Rudransh Khandelwal (para-shooting), Ekta Bhyan (para-athletics), Padmanabh Singh (polo), Arvind Singh (rowing), Akhil Sheoran (capturing), Mehuli Ghosh (capturing), Sutirtha Mukherjee (desk tennis), Sonam Malik (wrestling), Aarti Pal (yogasana), Treesa Jolly (badminton), Gayatri Gopichand (badminton), Lalremsiami (hockey), Mohammed Afsal (athletics), Pooja (kabaddi).
Dronacharya Award: TBD
Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award: TBD. (ANI)