The selection committee for the National Sports Awards recommended 24 athletes for the prestigious Arjuna Award, with teenage chess star Divya Deshmukh and decathlete Tejaswin Shankar among the nominees.
The panel, which included IOA vice president Gagan Narang, former badminton player Aparna Popat, and former hockey player M.M. Somaya, finalised the list on Wednesday.
In a historic first, Aarti Pal, a Yogasan athlete, has been recommended for the Arjuna Award. Aarti, the reigning national and Asian champion, will represent Yogasan at the 2026 Asian Games, where the discipline is set to be a demonstration sport.
Divya, 19, became the first Indian woman to win the FIDE Women’s World Cup earlier this year. Fellow chess player Vidit Gujrathi also earned a nomination. Tejaswin, meanwhile, won a silver medal at the 2023 Asian Games and followed it up with another silver at the Asian Championships in 2025.
Other notable names include rifle shooter Mehuli Ghosh, a two‑time World Championship bronze medallist; gymnast Pranati Nayak; and India’s top women’s doubles badminton pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.
The full list of nominees spans multiple disciplines:
- Athletics: Tejaswin Shankar, Priyanka, Mohammed Afsal
- Boxing: Narender
- Chess: Vidit Gujrathi, Divya Deshmukh
- Deaf Shooting: Dhanush Srikanth
- Gymnastics: Pranati Nayak
- Hockey: Rajkumar Pal, Lalremsiami Hmar Zote
- Kabaddi: Surjeet, Pooja
- Kho Kho: Nirmala Bhati
- Para-Sports: Rudransh Khandelwal (Para-Shooting), Ekta Bhyan (Para-Athletics)
- Polo: Padmanabh Singh
- Rowing: Arvind Singh
- Shooting: Akhil Sheoran, Mehuli Ghosh
- Table Tennis: Sutirtha Mukherjee
- Wrestling: Sonam Malik
- Yoga: Aarti Pal
- Badminton: Treesa Jolly, Gayatri Gopichand
The recommendations mark a diverse representation across sports, reinforcing the Arjuna Award’s role in recognising excellence across mainstream and emerging disciplines.
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