The Union Sports Ministry had convened meetings of eminent sportspersons to decide the Arjuna and Dronacharya awards for the year 2010 on 22 July 2011. The Dinesh Khanna-led Arjuna award panel had recommended increasing the number of Arjuna awards to 19 instead of the normal 15.
The selection of cricketer Zaheer Khan and Ashish Kumar, who bagged the first medals for the country in gymnastics in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, came as no surprise.
Swimmer Virdhawal Khade, who won the elusive Asian Games medal in Guangzhou, the first for the country after Khajan Singh's effort in 1986 in Seoul, was also chosen for the award.
Swimmer Prasanta Karmakar who had the distinction of winning the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games medals, was selected for the award in the paralympic category. The captains of the men's and women's kabaddi teams, Rakesh Kumar and Tejaswini Bai, were chosen for the award.
Tejaswini Sawant, who won the world championship gold in shooting, also made the list. Archer Rahul Banerjee, a gold medallist in World Cups and individual champion in the Commonwealth Games, was chosen for the honour as well.
Asian champion and gold medallist in the Commonwealth Games, boxer Suranjoy Singh, Greco-Roman wrestler Ravinder Singh, winner of the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games, and weightlifter K. Ravi Kumar, providing a silver lining to the troubled sport got for the award.
Hockey captain Rajpal Singh, badminton ace Jwala Gutta, volleyball player Sanjay Kumar, footballer Sunil Chetri, who almost got it last year, and wushu silver medallist in the Asian Games, Sandhya Rani Devi, were the others to be chosen for the Arjuna award.
Dronacharya award
Five coaches were chosen for the Dronacharya award. The awardees are as follows: Ram Phal (wrestling), Devendra Kumar Rathore (gymnastics), I. Venkateswara Rao (boxing), Rajender Singh (hockey) and Kunthal Kumar Roy (athletics).
Yashvir Singh, long-time coach of world champion and Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar, withdrew his nomination on 21 July evening thereby clearing the route for Ram Phal, coach of Yogeshwar Dutt.
Gagan Narang was selected for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
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