We haven't sent any names for national awards yet: NRAI secretary

NEW DELHI: Even as sports bodies across the country are looking to send in names for the national sports awards, the National Rifles Association of India (NRAI) has said it is yet to send its recommendations for the National Sports Awards and is hoping to do so by Thursday evening or on Friday after finishing calculations for the nominations.

NRAI Secretary Rajiv Bhatia said that the body is yet to finalise any names, let alone send them to the ministry.

"We are calculating points to each athlete on the basis of their results in competitions," Bhatia told IANS on Thursday. "The way it works is that we assign points to athletes based on how they have done in different competitions throughout the time period for the awards. The athlete who is earning the highest will be recommended.

"We have not sent any names to the ministry so far," said Bhatia. "Hopefully we will be able to do it by today evening or tomorrow."

Last year, the NRAI had recommended Heena Sidhu and Ankur Mittal for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honour in the country. Anjum Moudgil, Shahzar Rizvi and Om Prakash Mitharwal were recommended for the Arjuna Award while Jaspal Rana and Ronak Pandit were recommended for the Dronacharya Award. IANS 

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