9 players from Haryana will receive sports awards today. President Draupadi Murmu will give him the award at 11 am. Among these, Paris Olympics double medalist Manu Bhaker will receive the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. Apart from this Neetu Ghanghas, Sweety Boora, Sanjay Kaliravaan, Sarab
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Para athletes Abhishek Nain, Dharmbir Nain and Navdeep are also among the recipients of Arjun Award. Hockey coach Sandeep Sangwan will receive the Dronacharya Award. The players who received the awards had a very interesting start to the game. Like Manu Bhaker was a boxer, but became a shooter. Sweety Boora went for Kabaddi trials and returned as a boxer.
Players like Aman Sehrawat created history by winning medals in the Olympics despite difficulties.
Read the story of these players…
Manu Bhaker: Left boxing after getting punched, started shooting after 4 other sports Manu Bhaker is a double medalist of Paris Olympics. She is the first Indian female shooter to do so. Manu’s father Ramkishan, a resident of Jhajjar, wanted him to become a boxer. Manu also won national medals in boxing, but left boxing after getting punched in the eye. Manu then tried his hand in martial arts, archery, tennis and skating and also won medals. But, in the end she started shooting and made it her career.
However, after the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, there came a time when Manu was about to leave shooting also. Here she was out of the qualifying round due to pistol malfunction. She became so sad that her mother even had to hide the pistol. However, she started shooting again and defeated world number one shooter Heena Sidhu in the National Championship. After which she reached the Olympics.
Sweety Boora: Coach said- don’t do Kabaddi, you do boxing Sweety of Hisar used to play Kabaddi in Bura village. The father took him to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for trials. The coach saw his physique and asked him to box. Learning boxing rules and defense techniques from the coach, Sweety defeated the girls who had been training for 2 years. Then Sweety took boxing training there. In 2023, she defeated China’s boxer and became world champion. She was the 7th boxer to do so. She is married to Deepak Niwas Hooda, captain of the Indian Kabaddi team, resident of Rohtak.
Sanjay Kaliravaan: Had no money to buy hockey Hisar’s Sanjay Kaliravan was in the bronze medalist team in Paris Olympics. Sanjay took up hockey at the age of 7. Sanjay’s father Nekiram supports the family by farming. Because of this, the financial constraints were so great that he could not buy hockey. He practiced with his seniors’ hockey sticks for a month. After this coach Rajendra Sihag introduced hockey. He has been the captain of India’s school hockey team. Apart from this, he has captained the junior and sub-junior Chandigarh team. He has won more than 30 medals at national and international levels.
Aman Sehrawat: Defeated the wrestler from whom he took inspiration Aman from Jhajjar was 11 years old when his mother died. To prevent his son from going into depression, the father put him into wrestling. After 6 months the father also died. Aman’s father’s dream was that someone in the house should do wrestling and win medals for India. Aman had said that he will definitely fulfill his father’s dream. Aman considers Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Ravi Dahiya as his inspiration. Aman also qualified for the Olympics by defeating Dahiya. Aman had written the photo of the gold medal hanging in his room – ‘If it had been easy, everyone would have done it.’ He won the bronze medal in the Paris Olympics.
Neetu Ghanghas: Started boxing after seeing Vijender, father took leave without pay Bhiwani’s Neetu Ghanghas’ passion for boxing started in 2008, when boxer Vijender won the bronze medal in the Beijing Olympics. However, it was not easy for father Jai Bhagwan, a government employee, to get his daughter into boxing. He remained on leave without pay from Haryana Assembly for 4 years. Then he used to take Neetu daily 20 km from the village to Bhiwani Boxing Club. Neetu came into limelight when she faced Romania’s Steluta in the first round of the World Boxing Championship. Stelluta had defeated the great boxer MC Mary Kom. Neetu defeated him. Neetu’s aim is to win a medal for the country in the 2028 Olympics.
Navdeep: Inspired by watching Neeraj Chopra in a YouTube video The story of Navdeep, gold medalist of the javelin throw event of the 2024 Paralympics, was also full of struggle. Born in Panipat, Navdeep’s parents came to know at the age of 2 that his height would not increase. Navdeep used to do wrestling but suffered a back injury and had to give it up. Then one day I saw a video on YouTube written ‘Panipat’s boy did amazing, broke the world record’. There was a video of Neeraj Chopra who had won gold in the Olympics. In which he made a record at junior level in 2016. From here Navdeep also decided to throw javelin. After which he reached the gold medal through Para Asian Games, Tokyo Paralympics and World Championship.