After receiving prestigious Arjuna award from President Pranab Mukherjee, Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Monday revealed that they will try to bring three to four medals for the country in all six weight categories in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 22-year-old from Haryana's Balali district was seen sitting on a wheel chair at the Rashtrapati Bhawan after undergoing a surgery on her knee injury, which she sustained during the quarter-finals of the women's freestyle 48kg event against China's Sun Yanan in the recently-concluded Rio Olympics.
While admitting that she felt honoured to receive the prestigious award, Phogat believes that her country's wrestling has definitely improved to an extent as one of the three women wrestlers had brought Olympic glory to the nation.
"The honour matters a lot and, therefore, I have come here today to receive the award. It was my childhood dream to receive Arjuna award from the President of India. Our wrestling has definitely improved. As you can see, three women wrestlers went to Rio and one (Sakshi Malik) has brought medal for the country. We will try to qualify in six weight categories and win at least three to four medals in the Tokyo Olympics. And we will keep that in mind while preparing for the next Olympics," Phogat told ANI.
Besides Vinesh, 14 other sportspersons across various disciplines were honoured with the Arjuna Award for their consistent performance in the last four years. This list is as follows:
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Rajat Chauhan (Archery), Lalita Babar (Athletics), Sourav Kothari (Billiards & Snooker), Shiva Thapa (Boxing), Ajinkya Rahane (Cricket), Subrata Paul (Football), Rani (Hockey), Raghunath V.R. (Hockey), Gurpreet Singh (Shooting), Apurvi Chandela (Shooting), Soumyajit Ghosh (Table Tennis), Amit Kumar (Wrestling), Sandeep Singh Mann (Para-Athletics), Virender Singh (Wrestling, Deaf).
President Pranab Mukherjee also conferred the country's highest sporting honour Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award to Rio medallists PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik along with gymnast Dipa Karmakar and ace shooter Jitu Rai.
The prestigious award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of four years. This is for the first time that the award has been conferred on four athletes.
Also, Satti Geetha (Athletics), Sylvanus Dung Dung (Hockey), Rajendra Pralhad Shelke (Rowing) were given the Dhyan Chand Award for their life time contribution to sports development.
The specially organised ceremony was held on the occasion of National Sports Day, celebrated in dedication to the great hockey player Dhyan Chand.
The government also bestowed the Dronacharya Award, the honour for excellence in sports coaching, to Nagapuri Ramesh (Athletics), Sagar Mal Dhayal (Boxing), Bishweshwar Nandi (Gymnastics), S. Pradeep Kumar (Swimming, Lifetime) and Mahabir Singh (Wrestling, Lifetime).
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