President to honour Sindhu, Sakshi, Karmakar with Khel Ratna

New Delhi: Rio Olympics medalists, Shuttler PV Sindhu and Wrestler Sakshi Malik will be conferred with country's highest sporting honour Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. The award also will be bestowed to Gymnast Dipa Karmakar and Shooter Jitu Rai for their outstanding performances at the celebrated event.

The recipients of the prestigious Khel Ratna award will get a cash prize of Rs 7.5 lakh along with a medal and a citation. The Sports Ministry on Monday also announced to honor star Indian Cricketer Ajinkya Rahane with the Arjuna Award.

President Pranab Mukherjee will give away the awards at Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of National Sports Day, i.e. August 29.

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Other sportspersons along with their coaches to receive awards include:

• Dipa Karmakar’s coach Bisheshwar Nandi, Virat Kohli's coach Raj Kumar Sharma, athletics coach Nagapuri Ramesh and boxing coach Sagar Mal Dhayal will receive the Dronacharya awards.
• Dronacharya Award also will conferred to veteran swimming coach S Pradeep Kumar and Wrestling coach Mahabir Singh.
• Archer Rajat Chauhan, athlete Lalita Babar, cueist Sourav Kothari, boxer Shiva Thapa, footballer Subrata Paul, hockey stars Rani Rampal and V R Raghunath, wrestlers Vinesh Phohat, Amit Kumar, shooters Gurpreet Singh, Apurvi Chandela, paddler Somyajit Ghosh, Para-athletes Sandeep Singh Maan and Virender Singh will receive the Arjuna Award.
• Athlete Satti Geetha will be honored with the Dhayan Chand award along with hockey player Sylvanus Dung Dung and rower Rajendra Pralhad Shelke.