The Hindu : Sport : HISA awards nominees announced

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 30, 2004

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Sport - Sports : General

HISA awards nominees announced

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 29. World No. 2 Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, World amateur snooker champion Pankaj Advani and the first Indian golfer to qualify for the USPGA Tour Arjun Atwal have been shortlisted for the `Sportsman of the Year' award to be presented at the second annual Hero Indian Sports Academy (HISA) Awards function to be held at Hyderabd on May 15.

The Academy, headed by Kapil Dev, released the list of nominees here on Friday evening.

There are three nominees each in 15 categories while there is none for kabaddi and badminton this year. The nominees have been shortlisted based on their performances during 2003.

The race for honours for the `Sportswoman of the Year' involves long-jumper Anju George, shooter Anjali Bhagwat and squash player Joshna Chinappa.

In one of the most curious nominations, the country's sports journalists, whose voting formed the basis for this initial selection, picked 400m-800m runner K.M. Beenamol as one of the best in the athletics section along with Anju George and middle-distance runner Sunita Rani. Beenamol, it may be recalled had missed the entire 2003 season because of an injury.

Also surprising was the choice of Sunita Rani who had one of her worst seasons. To go out of the race, in the process, was discus thrower Neelam J. Singh, who in Paris, in 2003, became the first Indian athlete to make the final of a World championship.

Speaking on the occasion, Kapil Dev thanked the support of the Sports Journalists' Federation of India, whose members from all over the country voted for the nominations for various Award categories.

The Academy founder members, who will eventually chose the winners, present at the function today were P. K. Banerjee, Michael Ferreira, Diana Eduljee, Vikramjit Singh, Pargat Singh, Kamlesh Mehta, Khajan Singh, Moraad Ali Khan, Shantaram Jadhav, Premchand Degra, Balbir Singh Bhatia, Meharwan Daruwala, Eliza Nelson and Praveen Thipsay.

During the awards function, two Lifetime Achievement Awards, worth Rs. one lakh each, will also be presented.

The nominees (in random order): Athletics: Anju George, K.M. Beenamol and Sunita Rani. Chess: V. Anand, K. Humpy and K. Sasikiran. Cricket: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Cue sports: Pankaj Advani, Geet Sethi and Alok Kumar. Football: I.M. Vijayan, Baichung Bhutia, Alvito D'Cunha. Golf: Arjun Atwal, Mukesh Kumar and Jyoti Randhawa. Hockey: Devesh Chauhan, Gagan Ajit Singh and Dhanraj Pillay. Shooting: Rajyayavardhan Singh Rathod, Anjali Bhagwat and Abhinav Bindra. Tennis: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza. Weightlifting: Nandini Devi, Kunjarani Devi and K. Malleshwari. Other sports: Dola Banerjee (archery), Mohammad Ali Qamar (boxing), Joshna Chinappa (squash), A. Sharath Kamal (table tennis), Shikha Tandon (swimming) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling).

Young achiever (male): Irfan Pathan (cricket), Parimarjan Negi (chess) and Pankaj Advani (cue sports). Young achiever (female): Sania Mirza, Richa Mishra Chinappa.

Team of the Year: Indian Youth volleyball team, Indian men's hockey team and Indian cricket team.

Sportswoman of the Year: Anjali V. Bhawat, Joshna Chinappa and Anju George. Sportsman of the Year: Arjun Atwal, Pankaj Advani and V. Anand.

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