Vidit Gujrathi, Divya Deshmukh get Arjuna awards; Neha Nandkumar wins Dronacharya

Maharashtra was recognised this year in the National Sports Awards 2025 for chess, shooting coaching and the sports rehabilitation of disabled soldiers. President Droupadi Murmu presented the awards at a special ceremony at the Ganatantra Mandap in Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi.

Maharashtra's international chess players Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Divya Jitendra Deshmukh received the Arjuna Award. Shooting coach Neha Nandkumar was given the Dronacharya Award. Pune-based Army Paralympic Node received the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar.

Vidit Gujrathi, from Nashik, has played consistently well. He won gold at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024 in Budapest and silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games. He was also a gold medallist at the FIDE Grand Swiss 2023 on the Isle of Man. He was given the Arjuna Award for these achievements.

Divya Deshmukh, a young international player from Nagpur, won two gold medals at the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024. She won gold at the 2023 Asian Continental Women's Chess Championship in Almaty and a bronze at the 2022 event in Delhi. Her journey was honoured with the Arjuna Award.

Neha Nandkumar, a coach from Maharashtra, received the Dronacharya Award for excellent coaching in shooting and her contribution to honing players' skills. Under her guidance, players gained the confidence to perform at national and international levels. The award recognises this.

Army Paralympic Node in Pune rehabilitates soldiers who became disabled while serving the country. It also gives them scientific training in para sports. More than 150 athletes of the institution, set up in 2017, have won over 300 medals in national and international competitions, including the Paris Paralympics 2024 and the Hangzhou Asian Para Games. Lt Col Daljeet Singh received the award on behalf of the institution.

The Dronacharya Award went to athletics coach Parveen Singh and boxing coach Chhotelal Yadav. The Dronacharya Award (Lifetime) was given to wrestling coach Virender Kumar and boxing coach Dharmendra Singh Yadav.

Among the Arjuna Award recipients are athletes Tejaswin Shankar, Mohammed Ajmal V. and Priyanka Goswami. Badminton players Treesa Jolly and Pullela Gayatri Gopichand, boxer Narender and deaf shooter Dhanush Srikanth are also included. Also honoured were hockey's Lalremsiami and Rajkumar Pal, kabaddi's Surjeet and Pooja, para shooter Rudransh Khandelwal, para athlete Ekta Bhyan, sailor Arvind Singh and shooter Akhil Sheoran. Footballer I. Arumai Nayagam, who won gold at the 1962 Asian Games, received the Arjuna Award (Lifetime).

The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards 2024 were also presented at the ceremony. Skalzang Rigzin of Ladakh and Baljeet Kaur of Himachal Pradesh received the Land Adventure Award. Remo Shah of West Bengal received the Water Adventure Award, and Shiv Prasad Chamoli of Uttarakhand was given the Tenzing Norgay Lifetime Achievement Adventure Award. Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Mansukh Mandaviya, several dignitaries, senior officials and representatives of the sports world attended the event.