Vijay Kumar, Yogeshwar to get Khel Ratna; Arjuna award for 25

Olympic Silver medallist Vijay Kumar and bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt have been recommended for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award while Yuvraj Singh will be among 25 to get the Arjuna Award.

The names of pistol shooter Vijay Kumar, who won a silver in the 25m rapid fire event at the London Olympics and Yogeshwar, who bagged a bronze in 60kg free style event, were selected by the Arjuna Awards and Khel Ratna Committee, headed by Athens Olympics silver medallist shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who is preparing to stage a comeback after recovering from a rare germ cell cancer, is among the 25 sportsperson, who have been nominated for the Arjuna Award.

The final list of award winners is expected to be announced in a couple of days by the Sports Ministry.

Generally, the names submitted by the Committees are accepted by the Ministry.

Hockey mid-fielder Sardar Singh, wrestler Geeta Phogat, and Narsingh Yadav, shooters Annu Raj Singh and Omkar Singh, shuttlers P Kashyap and Ashwini Ponappa, archers Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi are among Arjuna Award winners, according to a reliable source.

It is noteworthy that all the other medallists at the London Games - Mary Kom, Gagan Narang, Sushil Kumar and Saina Nehwal - have already received the prestigious award. While Mary Kom and Sushil Kumar got it jointly along with Vijender Singh in 2008-09, Saina Nehwal got it in 2009-10 and Gagan Narang was the last recipient.

The awards were instituted in 1991-92 and the first of the awards went to Chess superstar Viswanathan Anand. While Vijay Kumar will be the sixth shooter to receive the award after Abhinav Bindra (2001-02), Anjali Bhagwat (2002-03), Rajyavardhan Rathore (2004-05), Manavjit Sandhu (2006-07) and Gagan Narang (2010-11), Yogeshwar Dutt will join Sushil Kumar as the second wrestler to get it once the award is conferred.

Arjuna Award winners
The following have been recommended for the Arjuna Award: Ashwini Ponnappa, P. Kashyap (badminton), Yuvraj Singh (cricket), Sandeep Sejwal (swimming), Vikas Krishan (boxing), Yashpal Solanki (judo), Omkar Singh, Annuraj Singh, Joydeep Karmakar (shooting), Geeta, Narsingh Yadav, Ravinder Singh (wrestling), Soniya Chanu (weightlifting), Sudha Singh, Kavita Raut (athletics), Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari (archery), Samir Suhag (polo), Sardar Singh (hockey), Deepa Malik, Ramkaran Singh (Paralympics), Aditya Mehta (billiards), Anup Kumar (kabaddi), Dipika Pallikal (squash), Bimoljit Singh (wushu).

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