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India’s top ranked compound archer, Jyothi Surekha Vennam expressed her disappointment on not being nominated for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award. Reckoned as the highest sporting honour, the Khel Ratna Award is presented for outstanding performances in sports spanning over a period of four years.
Talking about Jyothi Surekha, the World No. 1 ranked Indian archer in both mixed and team events was snubbed from the national sports award nominations, despite her gold medal performance at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou. Moreover, the Indian archer has won a total of 13 internationals medals, which includes three golds at the Asiad, a gold and a silver at the World Championships, four gold and two bronze at the World Cup and a gold and silver at the Asian Championships.
Speaking after her own calculations to arrive at the total point earned, which remains one of the criteria for the sporting honour, Jyothi said, “I have a total of 148.74 points which I the highest among all the applicants and much more than what have been awarded to Satwik and Chirag.”
The Indian athlete further added that she wants to know the reason on why her name wasn’t considered for the Khel Ratna despite logging the highest points speaking of an option to reach out to the court in regard to the same. “I have that option but that’s the last one. First of all, I want to know the reasons why my name wasn’t considered before approaching the court,” she quoted.
Here is the list of players nominated for the National Sports Awards 2023:
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty (Badminton)
Arjuna Award: Mohammad Shami (Cricket), Ajay Reddy (Blind cricket), Ojas Pravin Deotale (Archery), Aditi Gopichand wami (Archery), Sheetal devi (Para-archery), Parul Choudhary (Athletics), Murali Sreeshankar (Athletics), Mohd. Hussamuddin (Boxing), R Vaishali (Chess), Divyakriti Singh (Equestrian), Anush Agarwalla (Equestrian), Diksha Dagar (Golf), Krishan Bahadur Pathak (Hockey), Sushila Chanu (Hockey), Pinky (Lawn Balls), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (hooting), Antim Phangal (Wrestling), Ayika Mukherjee (Table Tennis).
Dronacharya Award: Ganesh Prabhakaran (Mallakhamb), Mahavir Saini (Para athletics), Lalit Kumar (Wrestling), RB Ramesh (Chess), Shivendra Singh (Hockey).
Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award: Kavita (Kabaddi), Manjusha Kanwar (Badminton), Vineet Kumar Sharma (Hockey).
