Olympic Medallist Vijay Kumar & Yogeshwar Dutt get the Prestigeous Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award while 25 others get Arjune Award.
The Selection Committee for National Sports Awards 2012 has recommended names of two athletes, shooter Vijay Kumar and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt who won medals at 2012 London Summer Olympics for the highest sporting honour — the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna while 25 other sportsperson to be conferred with the Arjuna awards this year.
The selection committee was headed by 2004 Olympic silver-medallist shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and had sportspersons such as Akhil Kumar (boxing), Khajan Singh (swimming), Baichung Bhutia (football) and Ravi Shastri (cricket).
List of 25 Arjuna Award Winners 2012 :
Deepika Kumari (Archery)
Laishram Bombayla Devi (Archery)
Sudha Singh (Athletics)
Kavita Ramdas Raut (Athletics)
Ashwani Ponnappa (Badminton)
Parupalli Kashyap (Badminton)
Aditya S Mehta (Billiards and Snooker)
Vikas Krishan (Boxing)
Yuvraj Singh (Cricket)
Sardar Singh (Hockey)
Yashpal Solanki (Judo)
Anup Kumar (Kabaddi)
Samir Suhag (Polo)
Annu Raj Singh (Shooting)
Omkar Singh (Shooting)
Joydeep Karmakar (Shooting)
Deepika Pallikal (Squash)
Sandeep Sejwal (Swimming)
Ng. Soniya Chanu (Weightlifting)
Narsingh Yadav (Wrestling)
Rajinder Kumar (Wrestling)
Geeta Phogat (Wrestling)
M. Bimoljit Singh (Wushu)
Deepa Mallick (Athletics – Paralympics)
Ramkaran Singh (Athletics – Paralympics)
About Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award :
Instituted by Indian Government in 1991-1992, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (RGKR) is India’s highest honour given for achievement in sports.The Khel Ratna was devised to be an overarching honour, conferred for outstanding sporting performance, whether by an individual or a team, across all sporting disciplines in a given year.
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardees receive a medal, citationa and cash prize of Rs 7.5 lakh each
About Arjuna Award :
Instituted by Indian Government in 1961, the Arjuna Awards is given to recognize outstanding achievement in National sports. Arjuna Awardees receive a bronze statuette of Arjuna, citations and cash prize of Rs 5 lakh each