The area of two neighboring North Indian agrarian states of Haryana and Punjab is just 3 percent of the country’s total area of 3.87 lakh square kilometer and collectively both the states contribute 4.5 percent in the country’s population of 1.4 billion. But when it comes to National Sports Awards-2021 – which was given by President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday – both Haryana and Punjab jointly contributed 50 percent of the awards. Out of 62 awards, 31 were bagged by the sportspersons and coaches from both the neighboring states.

Haryana contributed 17 National Sports Awards, while Punjab got 14.

In the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award list, out of 12 awardees, 5 are from Haryana and Punjab. Neeraj Chopra (athletics), Ravi Kumar (wrestling), Sumit Antil (para athletics), Manish Narwal (para shooting) – are from Haryana, while Manpreet Singh is from Punjab.

In the Arjuna award list, out of 35, 20 are from Haryana-Punjab. Haryana contributed 9, while Punjab 11.

In the Dronacharya award (lifetime), out of 5, 3 are from Haryana and Punjab. Sarkar Talwar (Cricket) and Ashan Kumar (Kabaddi) are from Haryana, while Sarpal Singh (Hockey) is from Punjab.

In the Dronacharya award (regular), out of 5, 1 is from Haryana. Pritam Swiach became the country’s first woman hockey coach to get this honour.

In the Dhyan Chand award for lifetime achievements, out of 5, Sajjan Singh (wrestling) is from Haryana, while Davinder Singh Garcha (Hockey) is from Punjab.  

National Sports Award-2021

Haryana (17)

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratan -4 (Neeraj Chopra, Ravi Kumar, Sumit Antil, Manish Narwal).
Arjuna Award – 9 (Monika, Sandeep Narwal, Abhishek Verma, Deepak Punia, Sumit, Surinder, Harvinder Singh, Singhraj Adhana, Yogesh Kathuniya)
Dronacharya award (lifetime) – 2 (Sarkar Talwar and Ashan Kumar)
Dronacharya award (regular) – 1 (Pritam Siwach).
Dhyan Chand award – 1 (Sajjan Singh).

Punjab (14)
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratan -1 (Manpreet Singh).
Arjuna Award – 11 (Arpinder Singh, Simranjit Kaur, Dilpreet Singh, Harman Preet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Hardik Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh, Simranjeet Singh and Varun Kumar).
Dronacharya award (lifetime) – 1 (Sarpal Singh)
Dhyan Chand award – 1 (Davinder Singh Garcha).