National Sports Awards conferred

29 August,2016: The President of India presented the National Sports Awards to players, coaches and organizations from various sports discipline in a glittering function at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The list of awardees was confirmed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports a week back.

From the field of hockey, hockey players V.R.Raghunath and Rani Rampal were conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Award. Sylvanus Dung Dung received the Dhyan Chand Award whereas Delhi based hockey NGO, Hockey Citizen Group was conferred with the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar in the category of Identifying and Nurturing of Budding and young talent.

Arjuna and Dhyan Chand awardees received statuettes, certificates and Rs. 5 lakh each. Recipients of the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar received trophies and certificates.

VR Raghunath, the defender from Coorg has been shining for India since 2005. The burly defender was part of silver winning SAF Games team, and also won bronze and silver in 2007 and 2008 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. He was also the proud 2014 Asian Games gold medalist. Raghunath’s first foray into the national side was the Sub-Junior Asia Cup, Dhaka, which India won. He made his senior international debut against Pakistan in the bi-lateral series in 2005.

Rani Rampal has to her credit of being the only Indian to be nominated for the FIH Women’s Young Player of the Year Award, 2010. She was even adjudged the “Best Young Player of the Tournament” award at the Women’s Hockey World Cup 2010, recognizing her stellar performance as the top field goal scorer in the tournament.

She played a huge role in winning the silver medal for the Indian team in the Asia Cup held in Nov 2009. After playing with India’s national team at 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2010 Asian Games, Rani Rampal was included in the FIH Women’s All Star Team of 2010. Undoubtedly, Ms Rampal is one of the most accomplished hockey players of current times. She played an important role in the performance of Indian Team at the 2015 World League Semi-Finals.

Sylvanus Dung Dung was a member of the 1980 Moscow Olympics gold winning hockey team. His long wait for a recognition from the government ended today. Besides 1980 olympics, he represented India in major tournaments of 1978 Buenos Aires World Cup, Bangkok Asian Games and several test matches.

Sylvanus scored the golden goal for India to give India 4-3 win against Spain in the finals of 1980 Olympics.

Delhi based hockey NGO, Hockey Citizen Group, which runs the globally acclaimed ‘One Thousand Hockey Legs (OTHL)’ project across five cities of India has introduced hockey in several schools of India. The NGO, Hockey Citizen Group was formed in 2008 by hockey historian, K. Arumugam. Many of the NGO boys and girls have represented in the Sub-Junior nationals. The target of the NGO chief is to bring 500 new kids to the ambit of hockey in each city of India by starting and running hockey teams in at least 25 schools in each city. Over the period of 7 years, the NGO has achieved several milestones. It serves two purposes: improve hockey in schools and uplift the profile of socially weaker and disadvantaged kids. It’s project, One Thousand Hockey Legs received the Hockey India President’s Outstanding Award 2014 in March 2015.

Pics
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VR Raghunath receiving the Arjuna Award from the President of India
Rani Rampal receiving the Arjuna Award from the President of India
Sylvanus Dung Dung receiving the Dhyan Chand Award from the President of India
K Arumugam,Founder and CEO Hockey Citizen Group, receiving the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar from the President of India