New Delhi: Premier table tennis player Mouma Das was among the seven shortlisted sportspersons to be awarded the prestigious Padma Shri in 2021 by the Government of India on the eve of the 72nd Republic Day of the nation.
Besides her, Madhavan Namibar, popularly known as the coach of the legendary PT Usha, long distance runner Sudha, former Indian wrestler Virender Singh, para athlete KY Venkatesh, former skipper of the Indian womens basketball team P Anitha and moutaineer Anshu Jamsenpa have also been honoured.
“I became mother in December 2019 and didn’t get to play after that because of the COVID pandemic. This honour will give me extra motivation to come back stronger and win more laurels for the country,” added Mouma, a multiple medal winner in Commonwealth and South Asian Games, who also won the Arjuna Award back in 2013.
Known as the country’s fourth highest civilian award, the winners of Padma shree are announced on the eve of Republic Day every with the awardees being felicitated by the honourable President of India.
Having won the Arjuna award in 2012,Sudha Singh is an Indian Olympic athlete in the 3000 metres steeplechase event is the second-most renowned athlete in the list who is also the Asian champion in the discipline having a couple of gold along with four silver medals throughout various editions of the Asian Games as well as many continental championship representing India at the2012 and 2016 Olympic games.
Madhavan Nambiar,better remembered as OM Nambiar renowned for being PT Usha’s coach, won the prestigious Dronacharya award back in 1985.
Venkatesh,a para athlete registered his name in the famous Limca Book of Records for bagging the most number of medals in the 2005 World Dwarf Games representing India at the first International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships in Berlin, Germany in 1994.
Virender is a bronze medal-winner in the 1992 World Wrestling Championship at Cali, Colombia while winning anotuer silver medal in the Commonwealth Championship in 1995 in the Senior 74kg, freestyle category.
Anshu Jamsenpa is an Indian mountaineer who also happens the first woman in the world to scale Mount Everest twice in a season while being the fastest double summitter which she achieved within a span of five days.
