Dipa Karmakar’s name was not on the list but her Olympics performance vaulted her in the reckoning for this year’s Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
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Despite failing to win a bronze medal in the vault final of the Rio Olympics by a whisker, path-breaking Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar said that she is not disappointed and instead is aiming for a gold in the next edition of the Summer Games in Tokyo.
Athlete Lalita Babar, who qualified for the women’s 3,000m steeplechase final at the Rio Olympics, hockey player V. R. Raghunath, boxer Shiva Thapa, cricketer Ajinkya Rahane, archer Rajat Chauhan and cueist Sourav Kothari have also been recommended for the Arjuna Award.
Rai was the first shooter to qualify for the Rio Games after winning a silver medal at the 51st Shooting World Championships in Spain in 2014.
According a reports suggested that shooter Jitu Rai might also be nominated for the Khel Ratna.
The 23-year-old Dipa, who had become the first Indian woman gymnast to have qualified for the Olympics, scored an average of 15.066 points, a mere 0.15 less than the eventual bronze victor Giulia Steingruber (15.216) of Switzerland.
Seven shooters have received the Khel Ratna award so far with the last being Ronjan Sodhi in 2012-13.
Though she did not win any medals, her performance did win a million hearts back home and overseas. Sakshi Malik gave India its first medal on the wee hours of Thursday, and could get a recommendation for the award if the reports are true. The winners will receive the award from President Pranab Mukherjee on August 29, which is the National Sports Day.
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Indian Test captain Virat Kohli was also in the running for the award, but with this being an Olympic year, he missed out to Jitu and Dipa. The most recent recipient is Sania Mirza.
