Salima Tete, Navdeep Singh, Vantika Aggarwal among stars felicitated with Arjuna Award

New Delhi [India], January 17 (ANI): Indian men's hockey players Jarmanpreet Singh, Sanjay, Abhishek, and Sukhjeet Singh and women's hockey team captain Salima Tete were awarded Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2024 at the Rashtrapati Bhawan by the President of India, Draupadi Murmu on Friday.

Earlier on January 2, the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports released a statement and announced the names of recipients of the prestigious National Sports Awards 2024.
On Friday, the National Sports Awards 2025 took place at the Rashtrapati Bhawan where the President of India awarded all the recipients of the Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award, and Dronacharya Award.
Indian chess grandmaster Vantika Agrawal and athlete Jyothi Yarraji have also been conferred with Arjuna Awards.
During the Chess Olympiad held in Budapest, Hungary in September, the Indian contingent made history when both men's and women's teams secured gold medals for the first time ever. Vantika was part of the women's team that clinched gold for the first time, alongside teammates Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, and Tania Sachdev.

At the recently concluded Paris Olympics, Jyothi Yarraji did not advance to the semifinals of the women's 100 m hurdles competition, finishing in fourth place in the repechage round heat one.
In the repechage round, Jyothi clocked in timings of 13.17 seconds to achieve the fourth-place finish, but the qualification was a privilege reserved for only the top two athletes from each heat.
Last year, Jyothi won India's first medal at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Tehran, securing gold in the 60m hurdles with a national record time of 8.12 seconds.
Para athletes Preeti Pal, Jeevanji Deepthi, Ajeet Singh, Sachin Sarjerao Khilari, Dharambir, Pranav Soorma, Hokato Sema, Simran, and Navdeep will also receive Arjuna Awards.
Preeti secured two bronze medals in the 100 m T35 and 200 m T35 races at the Paris Paralympics last year and became the first-ever Indian to win two medals in track and field events at the Paralympics.
Para-sprinter Deepthi Jeevanji bagged the 16th medal for India as she won the bronze on Tuesday in the women's 400m T20 final.
The double podium finishes continued to rain for India in athletics after Ajeet Singh and Sundar Singh Gurjar claimed silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the men's javelin throw F46 event at Stade de France.
Simran secured a bronze medal in the Paralympics 2024 in the 200 m T12 event in Paris. Simran Sharma delivered her personal best performance to get her hands on the bronze medal in the women's 200m T12 final.

Dharambir added the fifth gold medal in India's tally by setting an Asian Record with an attempt of 34.92m to take the top honours in the men's club throw F51 event. Pranav Soorma won the silver medal in the men's club throw F51 event. He sealed the medal with a 34.59 m throw.
The 27th medal was secured by Hokato Hotozhe Sema in the men's shot put F57 final. Hokato recorded the best throw of 14.65m, his personal best attempt.
The final medal for India in the Paris Paralympics was the one to remember. In a nail-biting affair, Navdeep Singh's silver medal was upgraded to gold after the initial winner, the Islamic Republic of Iran's Sadegh Beit Sayah, got disqualified from the final. He had initially finished second with a personal-best throw of 47.32m.

Sachin Khilari added a silver medal to India's constantly growing medal tally after delivering a benchmark performance in the men's shot put F46 final. Sachin secured the second spot with a 16.32-metre throw, which is also the area best (AB). However, the Indian athlete was unlucky to miss the top spot after getting short of a 0.6m.
Olympic medalists Swapnil Suresh Kusale and Sarabjot Singh and Para-Olympic shooters Mona Agarwal and Rubina Francis have also been awarded with Arjuna Awards.
Kusale became the first Indian shooter to win a medal in the men's 50m rifle 3P event. The shooter clinched the bronze medal for India in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men's Final after finishing in third place with an aggregate of 451.4.

Shooters Sarabjot Singh and Manu Bhaker won the bronze medal in the 10m air pistol (mixed team) event, which was India's first-ever shooting team medal.
Rubina Francis continued the flurry of medals after finishing third and bagging a bronze medal in the P2 - women's 10m air pistol SH-1 final.
Para-shooter Avani Lekhara maintained her streak and struck gold in the women's 10m air rifle final at the Paris Paralympics last year. Shooter Mona Agarwal bagged the bronze medal at the same event. (ANI)