The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on Tuesday announced the National Sports Awards 2025, recognising outstanding performances and contributions by sportspersons, coaches and organisations across various disciplines.
The awards have been decided based on the recommendations of a Selection Committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra. The committee included eminent sportspersons, sports administrators and individuals with experience in sports journalism.
A total of 17 sportspersons have been selected for the Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2025. The award recognises consistent performance over the previous four years, along with qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and discipline.
The awardees include athletes Tejaswin Shankar, Muhammed Ajmal V and Priyanka Goswami; badminton players Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand; boxer Narender; chess players Vidit Santosh Gujarathi and Divya Jitendra Deshmukh; deaf shooter Dhanush Srikanth; hockey players Lalremsiami and Rajkumar Pal; kabaddi players Surjeet and Pooja; para-shooter Rudransh Khandelwal; para-athlete Ekta Bhyan; rower Arvind Singh; and shooter Akhil Sheoran.
The Arjuna Award (Lifetime) for outstanding contribution to sports has been awarded to I Arumainayagam for football. The award is given to sportspersons who have made significant contributions through their performances and continued to promote sports after retiring from active competition.
The Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches has also been announced in regular and lifetime categories. In the regular category, Parveer Singh has been selected for athletics, Chhote Lal Yadav for boxing and Neha Nandkumar Chavan for shooting.
In the lifetime category, Dharmendra Singh Yadav has been selected for boxing, while Virender Kumar has been chosen for wrestling.
The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar 2025 has been awarded to the Army Paralympic Node, Pune, for its contribution to the promotion and development of sports.
The Ministry said applications for the awards were invited online, allowing sportspersons, coaches and entities to apply through a dedicated portal. A large number of applications were received this year and were examined by the selection committee.
The National Sports Awards are presented annually to recognise excellence in sports and acknowledge the contribution of athletes, coaches and organisations towards the development and promotion of sports in the country.
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