Sandhu awarded Khel Ratna

Indian world champion trap shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu was bestowed with the country's highest sports award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old shooter won the title last year to be ranked number one and then bagged the silver medal at the Asian Games last December.

Sandhu pipped cricket captain Rahul Dravid and golfer Jeev Milkha Singh, the 2006 Asian Tour order of merit winner, for the biggest prize among sports awards for the year 2006. President Pratibha Patil gave away the awards at a ceremony in the presidential palace.

Fourteen others were chosen for the Arjuna award, the second highest sports prize, with three picked for the Dronacharya award for excellence in coaching.

Arjuna award: Jayanta Talukdar (archery), K.M.Binu (athletics), Chetan Anand (badminton), Vijender (boxing), Pentala Harikrishna (chess), Anjum Chopra (cricket), Jyoti Sunita Kullu (hockey), Vijay Kumar (shooting), Saurav Ghosal (squash), Subhajit Saha (table tennis) Geeta Rani (weightlifting), Geetika Jakhar (wrestling), Navneet Gautam (kabaddi), Rohit Bhakar (badminton-disabled category).

Dronacharya awards: R D Singh (athletics-paralympic games), Damodaran Chandralal (boxing), Koneru Ashok (chess).