Khel Ratna Awards 2020: Rohit Sharma, Vinesh Phogat, Manika Batra And Mariappan Thangavelu Recommended for India's Highest Sporting Honour; A Look at Major Achievements of Four Sports Personalities

India’s limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma, Asian Games Gold medalist wrestler Vinesh Phogat, table tennis champion Manika Batra & Paralympian Mariyappan Thangavelu have been recommended by the National Sports Award Committee for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2020. The decision was made after the selection panel met on Tuesday (August 18, 2020) to decide several national sports awards. Rohit Sharma, Vinesh Phogat, Manika Batra And Mariyappan Thangavelu Recommended For Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2020.

This is the first time since 2016 that four athletes have been recommended by the committee for India’s highest sporting honour. PV Sindhu, Dipa Karmakar, Jitu Rai and Sakshi Malik were the recipients of the award four years earlier. Khel Ratna was awarded in 1992 and Chess player Vishwanathan Ananad was the first person to receive it. In this article, we take a look at some major achievements of all the four athletes recommended for the prestigious honour

Rohit Sharma

The Mumbai Indians skipper will be the fourth cricketer to receive the award after Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. The 33-year-old became the first player to score five centuries in a single World Cup tournament and was also the leading run-scorer in ODIs in 2019. He amassed 1,490 runs in 27 innings at an average of 57.3.

Vinesh Phogat

The 25-year-old is one of the most decorated Indian wrestlers of all time. In 2018, Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian woman wrestler to win Gold in both Commonwealth and Asian games. She was also the first Indian Athlete to be Nominated for Laureus World Sports Awards to be held on February 18, 2019.

Manika Batra

The 25-year-old Table Tennis player will be the first player from the sport to receive the prestigious honour. Batra is one of the most decorated Indian athletes and has won gold medals at the South Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. Batra also has a bronze medal at the Asian Games, which she won in 2018.

Mariyappan Thangavelu

The Paralympic high jumper represented India at the 2016 Summer Paralympic games held in Rio de Janeiro. He won a gold medal in the men’s high jump T-42 category, become the first Indian Paralympian gold medalist since 2004.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 18, 2020 04:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).