Sunil Chhetri recommended for Arjuna Award

The national awards selection committee today officially announced the list of recipients for the 2011 national sports awards and once more a footballer will be amongst the Arjuna awardees in the name of India striker Sunil Chhetri. The final list still has to be approved by the Ministry of Sports, but that is seen as a mere formality.

It would be a great achievement for the Delhi boy who started his career with local City Club before moving to Mohun Bagan AC. Thereafter he went to JCT where he started to show glimpses what he is capable off. In the last couple of seasons Sunil has played for Dempo SC, then spend the summer with North American MLS side Kansas City Wizards before playing for Chirag United SC in the second half of last season.

This year the AIFF had recommended the names of former captains Jo Paul Anchery and Shanmugam Venkatesh besides current players Subrata Pal, Mahesh Gawli, Climax Lawrence and Sunil Chhetri for the award. In the end Sunil Chhetri has been chosen by the committee to get the Arjuna Award.

Congrats Sunil! You deserve it.

Complete list for Arjuna Awardees

Archery – Rahul Bannerjee

Athletics – Preeja Sreedharan, Vijas Gowda

Badminton – Jwala Gutta

Boxing – Suronjoy

Cricket – Zaheer Khan

Disabled – Prashant Karmakar

Football – Sunil Chhetri

Gymnastics – Ashish Kumar

Hockey – Rajpal Singh

Kabaddi – Rakesh Kumar, Tejaswini Bai

Shooting – Tejaswini Sawant

Swimming – Virdhaval Khade

Tennis – Somdev Devvarman

Volleyball – Sanjay Kumar

Weightlifting – Ravi Kumar

Wrestling – Ravindra Singh

Wushu – Sandhya Rani Devi