NEWS
Ace Wrestler Vinesh Phogat is set to be recommended for India’s highest sporting honor ‘Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna’ by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). This will be the second time that she has been recommended for such a Prestigious Award.
On Monday, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, President of WFI, said that he will finalise the recommendations and send it to the Sports Ministry Of India soon.
Vinesh was recommended for the prestigious sporting honor last year as well but in the end, Paralympics silver medallist Deepa Malik received the Award. In 2016, Vinesh won the Prestigious Arjuna Award.
Vinesh is currently ranked third in World Rankings of the women’s 53 kg category. She has already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in her first attempt by winning the bronze medal in Wrestling World Championship. Earlier this year, she won bronze medal in Asian Championship in New Delhi.
Vinesh was a medal contender at the 2016 Olympics, but her quest in Rio ended due to a career threatening injury in the quarter-finals. Since her return to wrestling, Vinesh has won a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games . Her performance in the last two years is impressive and she will be a strong medla contender at Tokyo Olympics.
On May 5, Sports Ministry invited nominations for the 2020 National Awards including the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. The ministry has asked for nominations to be sent through e-mail due to the present coronavirus situation.
This nomination process has started late due to the pandemic situation otherwise it would have started in April.
“Due to lockdown on account of the outbreak of COVID-19, hard copies of nominations are not required to be sent. Scanned copies of the nominations duly signed by the applicant/recommending authority may be sent at email ids, before last date of submission,” said the ministry in its circular.
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