President Kovind awards 'Arjuna Award' to Assam's Lovlina Borgohain in virtual ceremony

Guwahati: Lovlina Bogohain, the ace pugilist from Assam, was on Saturday presented the prestigious Arjuna Award by India's President Ramnath Kovind, via a virtual ceremony.

In a first-of-its-kind ceremony due to the ongoing pandemic scenario, the winners of the National Sports Awards were connected virtually to President Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi from 9 different Sports Authority of India (SAI) certified locations. Lovlina, the first woman from Assam to qualify for the Olympics, was connected from Chandigarh.

There were five sporting individuals who have conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, which is the highest civilian honour for a sporting personality in India. This year's awardees attended the ceremony from various places across the country: Bengaluru, Pune, Sonepat, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Lucknow, Delhi, Mumbai, Bhopal, Hyderabad, and Itanagar.

However, Indian cricketers Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma missed the ceremony as they were on IPL duties in the UAE. According to the government protocol, athletes who are present in India at the time of giving the award can only be honoured.

Vinesh Phogat, the wrestler honoured with the Khel Ratna, was diagnosed COVID positive while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, honoured with the Arjuna Award was also diagnosed with the coronavirus. These two were the other prominent absentees.

Meanwhile, on the occasion of the National Sports Day on Saturday. Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju announced an increment in the prize money for the National Sports Award winners.

The prize money for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award has been increased to Rs 25 lakh from the previous amount of Rs 7.5 lakh, Arjuna Award has been enhanced to Rs 15 lakh from Rs 5 lakh, the Dhronacharya (Lifetime) awardees, who were earlier given Rs 5 lakh will now be given Rs 15 lakh as cash prize, while Dhronacharya (Regular) will be given Rs 10 lakh instead of Rs 5 lakh per awardee, Rijiju announced.

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