Sprinter Dutee Chand won’t have a shot at winning the Arjuna Award this year after her recommendation didn’t reach the Sports Ministry. The one from the Athletics Federation of India ranked her lower while the one from Odisha government was sent late, according to a report by The Times of India.
The 23-year-old, who won the 100m and 200m silver at the 2018 Asian Games, does not feature in it due to the rules that federation can send in just three names. AFI had sent in five names for the Arjuna Award, Tejinder Pal Singh Toor, heptathlete Swapna Barman and triple jumper Arpinder Singh as well as Dutee and Asian games men’s 800m champion Manjit Singh.
However, the AFI had to rank the names in order of preference and Manjit and Dutee were placed fourth and fifth. All of them won the Asiad gold in Jakarta except Chand.
The 23-year-old also became the first Indian woman track and field athlete to clinch a gold medal in the World Universiade at the event in Napoli, Italy this month. However, the award cut-off is April 30 and only performances before the date are counted.
Her name was also sent in by Odisha government but the state administration missed the deadline by at least a month, continued the report.
The Ministry draws up the list of athletes whose names have been recommended by the federations and will forward it to the award committee.
Even the BCCI had sent in more than three names for the Arjuna Award while Punjab government had sent in Harbhajan Singh’s name for the Khel Ratna but was rejected for being sent in too late.