The greatest athletic honour bestowed by the nation will be presented to table tennis star Achanta Sharath Kamal on November 30 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan by President Droupadi Murmu.
Achanta Sharath Kamal, a table tennis champion, will get the Khel Ratna on November 30
For the Arjuna Award this year, 25 athletes have been nominated, including the shuttlers Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy, the female boxer Nikhat Zareen, and the sportsmen Eldhose Paul and Avinash Sable.
The President will present the honours to the recipients during a special event that has been planned at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Jiwanjot Singh Teja (Archery), Mohammad Ali Qamar (Boxing), Suma Siddharth Shirur (Para shooting), and Sujeet Maan (Wrestling) have all received nominations for the Dronacharya Award in the regular category, while Dinesh Jawahar Lad (Cricket), Bimal Prafulla Ghosh (Football), and Raj Singh will be honoured in the lifetime category.
The Dhyan Chand Award will be given to Ashwini Akkunji C (Athletics), Dharamvir Singh (Hockey), B C Suresh (Kabaddi), and Nir Bahadur Gurung (Para Athletics) for their lifetime achievements in sports and games.
While Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology and Ladakh Ski & Snowboard Association have been nominated for supporting sports through corporate social responsibility and sports for development, respectively, TransStadia Enterprises Private Limited will receive the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar, 2022 for the discovery and development of emerging and young talent.
Achanta Sharath Kamal is a professional table tennis player from India who was born on July 12, 1982. He is the only table tennis player from India to ever win the Senior National Championship 10 times. beating Kamlesh Mehta’s previous record of eight national championships. He received the Padma Shri in 2019, India’s fourth-highest civilian honour.
As of May 2021, his ITTF world rating is 32. In the 28th Asian Cup in Jaipur in 2015, he defeated Joo Se Hyuk and Chuang Chih-yuan, the world’s 8 and 16 respectively. In the 16th Commonwealth table tennis competition, held in Kuala Lumpur in 2004, Sharath won the men’s singles gold medal. He has been given the Arjuna award for 2004.
He continues to be the best TT player in India and represented India in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He additionally represented the nation in the Asian Games held in Qatar in 2006.
He was the first Indian to win the Pyongyang Invitational Tournament, which was held in Pyongyang, North Korea, in the year 2007. The competition, which took place in August 2007, was in its 21st year. His finest performance on the international stage was in the June 2007 Japan Pro Tour, where he defeated Lee Jung Woo, the World No. 19. (South Korea). Following this triumph, he attained his highest career rating of World No. 73; in January 2011, he was ranked 44.