National Sports Day 2018: Khel Ratna & Arjuna Award Ceremony Shifted to Another Date Due to Asian Games at Jakarta

The Sports Ministry has announced the new dates for the National Sports Award 2018 which was scheduled to happen tomorrow i.e. August 29, 2018. The new date for the awards is September 25, 2018, as they also wish to accolade the winners of Asian Games 2018. The mega event in Jakarta will be played until September 2.

Sports Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar said, “The Sports Ministry has decided to shift the date as it coincides with the Asian Games. We want maximum participation at the awards ceremony so we wrote to Rashtrapati Bhawan requesting for the change of date and they agreed.” Before the decision was made, Bhatnagar had said, “The athletes who will receive the sports awards this year have already been selected on the basis of their entries received before April 30. But the government has provided to name outstanding sportspersons of Asian Games to the recommendation committee. The recommendation committee will have a meeting after the Asian Games and it will be up to them to decide. If they decide to include some more deserving names, they can be included along with the selected ones,” he had said.

The aim of the National Sports Award is also to pay tributes to the hockey legend, Major Dhyan Chand. The Khel Ratna Award is the highest sporting honour for an athlete and not more than four players received the accolade. The Arjuna Award is just a notch below the Khel Ratna and has been given to a maximum of 17 athletes. The Dronacharya Award is handed out to outstanding coaches whereas the Dhyan Chand honour is a lifetime achievement honour.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 28, 2018 03:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).