Anju Bobby George to chair AFI's Arjuna award committee

CHANDIGARH: The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Thursday named former world championship medallist Anju Bobby George, vice president Ravinder Chaudhry and chief coach Bahadur Singh as chairpersons of the respective award committees, to recommend the names for this year's national sports awards.
The committees will meet on Saturday via video-conferencing to pick their nominations for the awards.The 43-year-old Anju will head the Arjuna and Dhyan Chand award committees, while Chaudhry and Singh will chair the Dronacharya and Raiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award committees, respectively.
"We will meet on Saturday to finalise the names. The performances of the past three years will be taken into account while picking the names, also the performances at last year's Asian championship will be another crucial factor," Chaudhry told TOI.
"We have a very qualified group of individuals in each committee, where most of them are Arjuna awardees, so the nominations will be purely based on performances," added Chaudhry, who is also a member of the Arjuna and Dhyan Chand award committees and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna committee.
Chaudhry is an associate professor at the DAV College in Sector 10, Chandigarh and has been involved with various technical committees besides being the vice president of the Athletics Federation of India. Besides Chaudhry, the other members of the Anju-led Arjuna and Dhyan Chand award committees include Bahadur Singh, AFI secretary CK Valson, Paramjit Singh, Jyotirmoyee Sikdar and Krishna Poonia.
Anju, one of India's most decorated athletes, is India's first and only World Champion in Athletics IAAF World Athletics Final. She made history when she won the bronze medal in long jump at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris. She went on to win the gold medal at the IAAF World Athletics Final (a competition between best eight athletes in the world based on the world ranking) in 2005. Anju was upgraded to the gold status from silver in the 2005 World Athletics Final in Monte Carlo following the disqualification of Tatyana Kotova of Russia by the IAAF, following the recent re-testing of the latter's sample collected at the 2005 World Championship in Helsinki.
Athlete-turned-politician Jyotirmoyee is a double Asian Games gold medallist, while 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist discus thrower Krishna Poonia is a three-time Olympian. She also is a bronze medallist at the 2006 and 2010 Asian Games, besides being a politician.
Paramjit competed in the 400m at the 2000 Olympics. In 1998, Paramjit broke the 38-year-old National record for the 400m that had been set by Milkha Singh. He was also part of the Indian relay team that won a silver medal in the 4 x 400 m relay at the 1998 Asian Games
The Dronacharya award committee comprise Sandeep Mehta, Renu Kohli, Bahadur Singh Sagoo and Madhukant Pathak, along with Chaudhry.Renu Kohli is a middle and long distance coach of repute, while Mehta is the secretary of the Delhi Athletics Association. Sagoo is a former India shot putter, who competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics and in the 2004 Summer Olympics.
The Bahadur Singh-led Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award committee, also includes Chaudhry and Valson, along with Praveen Jolly, Sriram Singh and Virender Poonia. Jolly bagged an Asian Games bronze in 110m hurdles in 1982, while Virender Poonia, is a former athlete and coached his wife Krishna after their marriage.
Sriram is a multiple Asian Games medallist. He clinched 800m gold medals at the 1974 and 1978 Asian Games, He also won a silver at the 1970 Asiad in 800m while being a part of the silver-medal winning 4X400m relay teams at the 1974 and 1978 editions.
The Sports Ministry had on May 5 invited nominations for the 2020 National Sports Awards including the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and the Arjuna Award. The ministry has asked for nominations to be sent via e-mail in view of the coronavirus situation.