National Sports Awards 2025 announced with 17 Arjuna Awardees
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has announced the National Sports Awards 2025, honouring 17 sportspersons with Arjuna Awards along with coaches and an organisation.
The Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2025 have been conferred on 17 sportspersons across athletics, badminton, boxing, chess, deaf shooting, hockey, kabaddi, para-shooting, para athletics, rowing and shooting.
NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on Tuesday announced the National Sports Awards 2025, recognising sportspersons, coaches and an organisation for their contribution to Indian sports.
The awards have been decided based on the recommendations of a Selection Committee chaired by former Supreme Court Judge Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra. The committee considered applications from sportspersons, coaches and entities across various categories.
The Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2025 have been conferred on 17 sportspersons across athletics, badminton, boxing, chess, deaf shooting, hockey, kabaddi, para-shooting, para athletics, rowing and shooting.
The Arjuna Awardees include Tejaswin Shankar, Muhammed Ajmal V, Priyanka Goswami, Treesa Jolly, Pullela Gayatri Gopichand, Narender, Vidit Santosh Gujarathi, Divya Jitendra Deshmukh, Dhanush Srikanth, Lalremsiami, Rajkumar Pal, Surjeet, Pooja, Rudransh Khandelwal, Ekta Bhyan, Arvind Singh and Akhil Sheoran.
The Arjuna Award is given for good performance over the previous four years, along with qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and discipline.
The Arjuna Award (Lifetime) for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2025 has been awarded to former footballer I Arumainayagam. The lifetime category recognises sportspersons who have contributed to sports through their performance and continued to promote sports after retiring from active competition.
The Dronacharya Awards for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games 2025 have also been announced in regular and lifetime categories.
The regular category honors Parveer Singh in athletics, Chhote Lal Yadav in boxing and Neha Nandkumar Chavan in shooting. The lifetime category recognises Dharmendra Singh Yadav in boxing and Virender Kumar in wrestling.
The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2025 has been awarded to Army Paralympic Node, Pune, for its role in promoting and developing sports. The award is given to corporate entities, public or private, and non-governmental organisations that have played a visible role in sports promotion and development.
The ministry said a large number of applications were received for the awards this year. Sportspersons, coaches and entities were permitted to apply through a dedicated online portal, with the applications subsequently considered by the Selection Committee comprising eminent sportspersons, people with experience in sports journalism and sports administrators.
