Malayalis Treesa Jolly, Muhammed Ajmal among 17 conferred Arjuna Awards

Badminton player Treesa Jolly and sprinter Muhammed Ajmal V were the two Malayalis among 17 athletes conferred with the prestigious Arjuna Award on Tuesday.

Treesa, a native of Kannur, represents India in doubles badminton. Her doubles partner, Gayatri Gopichand, was also among the award recipients.

Muhammed Ajmal, a native of Palakkad, represents India in the 400m events. He won gold in the 4x400m relay at the 2023 Asian Games and followed it up with a silver in the Asian Athletics Championships that year.

World Cup-winning chess player Divya Deshmukh was also conferred with the Arjuna Award.

The Sports Ministry, however, did not name any sportsperson for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award this year.

Former footballer and 1962 Asian Games gold medallist I Arumainayagam was conferred with the Arjuna Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist boxer Narender and young deaf shooter Dhanush Srikanth were also among the Arjuna Award recipients.

High jumper Tejaswin Shankar, who recently won a historic decathlon bronze at the Commonwealth Games to become the first Indian to win a medal in the event at the quadrennial Games, was also honoured with the Arjuna Award.

Other recipients included sprinter Priyanka Goswami, hockey players Lalremsiami and Rajkumar Pal, shooter Akhil Sheoran, para-shooter Rudransh Khandelwal, para-athlete Ekta Bhyan, rower Arvind Singh, and kabaddi players Surjeet and Pooja.