Sindhu, Sakshi, Dipa, Jitu conferred Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awards

TIL Desk Sports/ It was a celebration of woman power in sports as Olympic stars PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar were today conferred India’s highest sporting honour — the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna — along with shooter Jitu Rai in a gleaming awards ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here.

For the first time in the history of National Sports Awards, four athletes were chosen for the Khel Ratna honour, owing to the three girls’ superlative show at the Rio Olympics.

Shuttler Sindhu won a historic silver in the women’s singles, Sakshi won India’s first ever medal (bronze) in women’s wrestling while Dipa grabbed a piece of history for herself with a fourth place finish in artistic gymnastics with her now famous Produnova vault.

Shooter Jitu Rai was always a contender after consistently producing medal-winning performances in the last two years, including gold at the Asian and Commonwealth Games along with a silver at the World Championships.