August 27, 2010
Air India’s list of Arjuna Award winners will soon see three additions. On August 29, 2010, at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President of India Mrs Pratibha Patil will present the Award to three sportspersons from Air India – cricketer Ms Jhulan Goswami, kabaddi player Dinesh Kumar and chess prodigy Parimarjan Negi.
With this, the number of Arjuna Award winners in the airline will touch 32. The airline also has two Padma Shri and three Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardees. Air India has played a stellar role in the promotion of sportspersons in the country for over the last four decades and has some of the finest athletes in various disciplines, on its rolls.
Jhulan Goswami is the captain of the Indian women’s cricket team and was awarded the “ICC Woman Cricketer of the Year Award” in 2007 for her outstanding performance. She is the first Indian woman cricketer to receive the honour. This world number 1 bowler, is employed by Air India as Customer Services Supervisor at Kolkata.
Dinesh Kumar, seasoned kabaddi player, has brought laurels to the nation with sterling performances in the World Cup 2007 and Asian Games 2006, where he won gold medals. He is Senior Vigilance Inspector at Delhi.
Parimarjan Negi, became chess Grand Master at the tender age of 13, the second youngest ever in the history of the game. He acquired the International Master title at the age of 12. He is the youngest Indian GM and IM. He has to his credit several medals and titles in various prestigious international championships.
Air Indians who have been, so far, recognized with top national honours like Padma Shri, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award are :
Padma Shri : M.S.Dhoni and Harbhajan (cricket) ; Dhanraj Pillay (hockey).
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna : Dhanraj Pillay (hockey)
Arjuna Award : Dilip Tirkey, Mohammed Riaz, Ashish Ballal, A.B.Subbaiah, Dhanraj Pillay, Mukesh Kumar, Mervyn Fernandes, Jagbir Singh, M.P.Singh, Zafar Iqbal, B.P.Govinda, Ashok Kumar and P.Krishnamurthy (hockey) ; V.V.S.Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Anju Jain and Anjum Chopra (cricket) ; Gagan Narang, Vivek Singh and Avneet Kaur Sidhu (shooting) ; S.D.Bhavsar, A.Shinde and Pankaj Shirsat (kabaddi) ; S.Vijayalakshmi and Tania Sachdev (chess) ; A.Maria Irudayam (carrom) ; Arti Pradhan and Avinash Sarang (swimming).
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