Shooter Gagan Narang was bestowed with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest sports award in the country, by President of India Pratibha Patil at an investiture ceremony to honour the National sports award winners at the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan here today.
The current double world-record holder in the 10-metre air rifle event, Narang had won four gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, two silver medals in the Asian Games in China and a clutch of other medals in international meets to emerge as the sole candidate for the Khel Ratna Award.
The president also presented the Dronacharya, Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Tenzing Norgay awards. Though the invitation card had mentioned the Maulana Abul Kalam Award (MAKA) Trophy as well, it was not presented this year, though no reason was given for not awarding the trophy to the university with best sporting achievements.
A source said the MAKA Trophy was withheld due to the fight between Punjabi University, Patiala and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and consequently the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) did not go through the process of selecting the best university. Compared to other years, the award function was rather subdued.
Barring Sports Minister Ajay Maken and Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, no other union minister was present. There were also four absentees among the Arjuna Award winners — cricketer Zaheer Khan, tennis star Somdev Devvarman, discus thrower Vikas Gowda and gymnast Ashish Kumar.
