New Delhi: Double Paralympic silver medallist Yogesh Kathuniya expressed his disappointment over not being nominated for the prestigious Khel Ratna Award. Kathuniya, on Saturday, voiced his anger saying that despite consistent performances on the world stage, his name was ignored for India’s highest sporting honour.
Calling it as favouritism and a lack of transparency in the award selection process, Kathuniya questioned the criteria set for achieving the award. In an exclusive interview with news agency PTI, he said that even after getting the highest aggregate marks, he was ignored.
“I don’t know what criteria they have set. I even filled the form. It’s not like I didn’t fill the form. I did everything, but even after getting the highest aggregate marks, I was not nominated this time as well,” Kathuniya told. “If you look at 2016-2020, there was no favouritism,” he said.
Kathuniya’s six medals at world level
Discuss thrower Yogesh Kathuniya has earned number of accolades for India at the world level, winning as many as six medals. He bagged two medals at the Paralympics, two silver and a bronze in the World Championship, and a silver in the Asian Games making it a total of 6 medals at the biggest stage. Further commenting on the situation, he said that he did not even fill the form for the Arjuna Award, yet he was nominated last time.
He further said that there used to be a policy that if you played in the Paralympics or Olympics and won a medal, the athlete would be considered directly but it did not happen this time. The athlete even went on to say that what is the use of playing if an athlete has to ask for awards as it does not hold any value if one has to beg for it. In the past few days, number of athletes have raised their objection for not being considered for the prestigious awards.
Double Paralympic silver medallist Yogesh Kathuniya expressed his disappointment over not being nominated for the prestigious Khel Ratna Award Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
