Gambhir congratulates his coach Sanjay Bharadwaj for Dronacharya Award

Former India batsman Gautam Gambhir on Friday congratulated his coach Sanjay Bharadwaj for receiving Dronacharya Award.

"I'm very happy that my coach, the man who moulded me to become the person I am today & who I dedicate all my achievements too, Shri Sanjay Bharadwaj ji, has been honoured with the Dronacharya Award. It's been a privilege to have learnt so much from you. Congratulations sir," Gambhir wrote on Twitter.

On Thursday, President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the national sports and adventure on sportspersons in a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on the occasion of National Sports Day.

Dronacharya award was bestowed to Vimal Kumar (Badminton) and Sandeep Gupta (Table Tennis) in regular category. Whereas, in the life-time category, Merzban Patel (Hockey), Rambir Singh Khokhar (Kabaddi), and Sanjay Bharadwaj (Cricket) were honoured.

Para-athlete Deepa Malik was presented with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the highest sports honour in the country.

Fourteen sportspersons were honoured with the Arjuna Award, during the ceremony. They were S Bhaskaran (Body Building), Sonia Lather (Boxing), Chinglensana Singh Kangujam (Hockey), Ajay Thakur (Kabaddi), Gaurav Singh Gill (Motor Sports), Pramod Bhagat (Para Sports, Badminton), Harmeet Rajul Desai (Table Tennis), Pooja Dhanda (Wrestling), Fouaad Mirza (Equestrian), Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (Football), Poonam Yadav (Cricket), Swapna Barman (Athletics), Bhamidipati Sai Praneeth (Badminton), and Simran Singh Shergill (Polo).

Dhyan Chand Award for the year 2019 was given to Manuel Fredricks (Hockey), Arup Basak (Table Tennis), Manoj Kumar (Wrestling), Nitten Kirrtane (Tennis), and C Lalremsanga (Archery).

Aparna Kumar (Land Adventure) and Late Shri Dipankar Ghosh (Award received by his family member) (Land Adventure), Manikandan K. (Land Adventure), Prabhat Raju Koli (Water Adventure), RameshwerJangra (Air Adventure), and Wangchuk Sherpa (Life Time Achievement) were honoured with Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards.

Indian shooter Gagan Narang's foundation under the name Gagan Narang Sports Promotion Foundation received the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar. Rayalaseema Development Trust also received the same honour during the ceremony.