President Murmu presents National Sports Awards; Divya Deshmukh, Tejaswin Shankar get Arjuna Award

President Droupadi Murmu presented the National Sports Awards 2025 at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday (November 13). Seventeen athletes, including chess World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh and decathlete Tejaswin Shankar, received the Arjuna Award. The Dronacharya Award, the Arjuna Award (Lifetime), the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award and the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar were also presented.

Tejaswin Shankar won a bronze medal in the decathlon at the Commonwealth Games, becoming the first Indian to win a medal in the event. He was given the Arjuna Award for this achievement.

Chess player Divya Deshmukh made history by winning the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025, the first Indian woman to win the title. In the final in Baku, she beat India's veteran Koneru Humpy 1.5-0.5 in the rapid tiebreak.

The other Arjuna Award recipients are track and field athlete Mohammed Ajmal Variyathodi, race walker Priyanka Goswami, boxer Narender, chess player Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, para shooter Dhanush Srikanth, and hockey players Lalremsiami Hmarzote and Rajkumar Pal. Kabaddi players Surjeet and Pooja, para shooter Rudransh Khandelwal, para athlete Ekta Bhyan, rower Arvind Singh and shooter Akhil Sheoran also received it.

India's women's badminton doubles pair Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand are in Japan for the Japan Masters and so could not attend the ceremony. Veteran Indian footballer Isaiah Arumainayagam was given the Arjuna Award (Lifetime).

The Dronacharya Award, for contributions as coaches, went to athletics coach Parveen Singh, boxing coaches Chhote Lal Yadav and Dharmendra Singh Yadav, shooting coach Neha Nandkumar Chavan and wrestling coach Virender Kumar.

In adventure sports, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2024 was given to Baljeet Kaur and Skalzang Rigzin in the land adventure category, Rimo Saha in the water adventure category and Shiv Prasad Chamoli in the lifetime category.

The Army Paralympic Node in Pune received the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar. Lieutenant Colonel Daljeet Singh received it from the President. The award goes to institutions and organisations that make a major contribution to developing and promoting sport.

The National Sports Awards are given every year to recognise the best achievements and contributions in sport. The Sports Ministry released the final list of 2025 winners on August 18, on the recommendation of a selection committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Arun Kumar Mishra.

The ceremony was delayed by more than a year this time. The awards are usually given on August 29, the birth anniversary of the late hockey player Major Dhyan Chand. In years with the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, however, the date is set according to the schedule of those events.