Paralympians Avani Lekhara and Krishna Nagar from Rajasthan are among 11 players who have been nominated for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2021.
The other nine nominees are Neeraj Chopra, Ravi Dahiya, PR Sreejesh, Lovlina Borgohain, Sunil Chettri, Mithali Raj, Pramod Bhagat, Sumit Antil, and Manish Narwal.
The Rajasthan-based Paralympians won gold medals for India in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games held recently.
Avani had won two medals in shooting while Nagger bagged gold in the badminton SH6 category. It is for the first time in the history of Khel Ratna since 1991, that two players from the same city, Jaipur, might be felicitated with the award.
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Avani is also the first Indian woman to win a gold medal either at the Paralympic or Olympic Games. She is also the youngest candidate nominated for the Khel Ratna award. She was awarded gold in 10 metre air rifle SH1 and bronze in women's 50 metre air rifle SH1 in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
In 2012, she met with an accident that led to paralysis wait-down. However, the brave girl did not give up and started practicing shooting.
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Nagar's story is also of struggles. He suffered from an incurable illness due to which his height got restricted to around 4.2 feet. His family motivated him and he has been ranked World No 2 in the para-badminton men's singles SH6 category for the last few years. At the Tokyo Paralympic Games, Nagar won the gold medal by beating Hong Kong's Chu Man Kai 21-16, 16-21, 21-17.
