Bindra bags Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna
Talented shooter Abhinav Bindra was on Saturday selected for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for the year 2001.
Three other eminent sports persons -- hockey goalkeeper
Ashok Dewan, pugilist Birajdar Shahuraj and basketballer Aparna Ghosh --
were named for the Dhyan Chand award for lifetime
achievement.
The 19-year-old Bindra, who won a gold and a silver medal in the recent Commonwealth Games in Manchester, is India's most promising shooter and the coveted award has come as recognition for consistent performances in international events.
Apart from winning six gold medals in various
international meets last year, Bindra has the distinction of
setting a world junior record of 597 in air rifle shooting in
the 2001 Munich World Cup.
The selection committee for these two awards was headed by
former India cricket captain Kapil Dev.
The President of India will give away the awards at a
function on August 29.
Olympic goalkeeper Ashok Dewan, who successfully stood between the goal and marauding Pakistani forwards to help India win its only hockey World Cup gold medal at Kuala Lumpur in
1975, was given due recognition for his contribution to the
game.
Dewan, who went on to become India's vice-captain in the
1982 World Cup, in Mumbai, has now turned to coaching. He is in charge of the Indian Railways' women's team -- national champions for the last 18 years -- since
1992 and teamed up with another Olympian M K Kaushik from 1991
to 1994 to put the men's national team back on the winning track
after it went into a slump following its brilliant 1982 New
Delhi Asian Games gold medal performance.
Olympian Birajdar Shahuraj, who is also selected for the
Dhyan Chand award, dominated the boxing ring in the eighties and was national champion for several years.
The high point of Shahuraj's career was when he represented
India in the 1988 Seoul Olympics in the fly-weight category.
The pugilist now a Subedar Major with the BEG Centre in
Khirki, Pune, also won medals for India in the Asian Games and
in several other international competitions.
A student of the famous boxing coach Hakkam Singh, Shahu's
contemporaries are Gopal Dewang and Mukund Killekar.
Aparna Ghosh had dominated the women's basketball scene
for several years.
