New Delhi: Former India cricket captain Mahendra Singh and multiple world champion cueist Pankaj Advani were on Thursday conferred with the country’s third-highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan.
Besides the duo, ace men’s singles shuttler Kidambi Srikanth; India’s first Paralympic gold medalist, Murlikant Petkar; 2017 World Weightlifting Champion in the 48kg category, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and former Asian Games gold medallist tennis player Somdev Devvarman were conferred with the Padma Shri awards.
Petkar won an individual gold medal in the 1972 Summer Paralympics, in Heidelberg, Germany. He set a world record in the 50m freestyle swimming event, at 37.33 seconds. In the same games he participated in javelin, precision javelin throw and slalom. He was a finalist in all three events.
Advani has a distinguished career, having won gold twice in Asian Games in 2006 Doha and 2010 Guangzhou. He is also a multiple world-champion.
Manipuri weightlifter Mirabai Chanu’s feat includes a silver medal in the women’s 48kg weight class at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow. But her real claim to fame came last year when she lifted a world record of 194kg in total (85 kg snatch and 109 kg clean & jerk) to win the gold in the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships held at Anaheim, CA, United States.
