Former Hockey Player Deepika Thakur Nominated For Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award

Deepika Thakur: Hockey India nominated former defender of women's team, Deepika Thakur and goalkeeper PR Sreejesh for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award on Saturday.

Apart from Thakur and Sreejesh, Vandana Katariya, Navjot Kaur and Harmanpreet Singh were also nominated for the award.

Hockey India also nominated former India captain, Dr RP Singh for the Dhyan Chand Award for Lifetime Achievement along with Chingshubam Sanggai Ibemhal of the women's team. Personalities nominated for Dronacharya Award are CR Kumar and BJ Kariappa.

More of National sports awards:

In 2020, Rani Rampal had won the Khel Ratna award among a record number of five athletes awarded that year. Earlier the nominations for the National Sports Awards were invited on May 20. The deadline for submissions was extended from June 21 to June 28.

The applicants were required to have recommendations to be able to apply for the sports awards but the condition was waved after 2019 in light of the pandemic which restricted the movement of people. In 2020, over 74 sports personalities won the awards. The prize money for all the sports awards was significantly increased. The Khel Ratna awardees received a sum of Rs 25 Lakh, the Dhyanchand winner got Rs 10 lakh, the Arjuna award recipients received Rs 15 lakh and the Dhronacharya (lifetime) awardees got Rs 15 lakh in prize money.