The men’s doubles badminton pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been conferred with the 2023 Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award – India’s highest sporting honour.

A total of 26 athletes, including India’s World Cup star Mohammed Shami, have been nominated for the Arjuna Award.

The awardees will receive their awards by President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 9, 2024.

Five coaches have been nominated for the Dronacharya award and while three coaches have been nominated for the Dronacharya award for lifetime achievement.

Beacon for Indian badminton: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s incredible season

Three athletes have been nominated for the Dhyan Chand award for lifetime achievement.

Rankireddy and Shetty have had a terrific season in top flight badminton. The duo not only won India’s first-ever gold in the sport at the Asian Games, but also became the first men’s doubles pair from the country to win the Asian Championships title.

Their gold medal winning effort at the Asian Games in Hangzhou also propelled them to the world No 1 ranking – yet again a first in their discipline from the country.

Award winners:

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award for 2023: Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (badminton)

Arjuna Awards: Ojas Pravin Deotale (archery), Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery), Murali Sreeshankar (athletics), Parul Chaudhary (athletics), Mohameed Hussamuddin (boxing), R Vaishali (chess), Mohammed Shami (cricket), Anush Agarwalla (equestrian), Divyakriti Singh (equestrian dressage), Diksha Dagar (golf), Krishan Bahadur Pathak (hockey), Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pawan Kumar (kabaddi), Ritu Negi (kabaddi), Nasreen (kho-kho), Pinki (lawn bowls), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting), Esha Singh (shooting), Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (squash), Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis), Sunil Kumar (wrestling), Antim (wrestling), Naorem Roshibina Devi (wushu), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy (blind cricket), Prachi Yadav (para canoeing).

Dronacharya Award: Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Mahaveer Prasad Saini (para athletics), Shivendra Singh (hockey), Ganesh Prabhakar Devrukhkar (mallakhamb).

Dronacharya Award (life-time category): Jaskirat Singh Grewal (golf), Bhaskaran E (kabaddi), Jayanta Kumar Pushilal (table tennis).

Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement: Manjusha Kanwar (badminton), Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey), Kavitha Selvaraj (kabaddi).