Pacer Mohammed Shami, one of the architects of India's near-successful World Cup campaign, has been nominated for this year's Arjuna Award, while men's doubles badminton pair of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was selected for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, the Sports Ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
Shami, 33, had a spectacular run in the ODI World Cup, where India finished second best, losing to Australia in the final. He was the leading wicket-taker in the World Cup with 24 wickets to his name in seven outings.
Chirag and Satwik are Asian Games gold medallists, World Championships bronze winners and Commonwealth Games silver medallists.
The awards will be conferred on the athletes by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9. The athletes were nominated for the awards by a government panel on December 13.
The athletes selected for this year's Arjuna award include hockey players Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu, archers Ojas Pravin Deotale and Aditi Gopichand Swami, boxer Mohammad Hussamuddin, chess player R Vaishali, golfer Diksha Dagar, shooters Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Esha Singh, wrestlers Antim Panghal and Sunil Kumar, paddler Ayhika Mukherjee and para archer Sheetal Devi, among others.
The ministry also cleared five coaches for Dronacharya award in the regular category and three in lifetime category. The Dyan Chand Award in the lifetime category will be conferred to three persons.
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar is the recipient of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2023, while Lovely Professional University, Punjab and Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra are the first and second runner-ups.
National Sports Awards are given every year to recognise and reward excellence in sports.