Ace shooter Gagan Narang, who notched up four gold medals at last year’s Commonwealth Games, was\u00a0 conferred the country’s highest sporting honour — the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award — in a glittering ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old rifle shooter, who was the first Indian marksman to qualify for next year’s London Olympics with a bronze in the World Championships last year, was an automatic choice for the prestigious award.<\/p>\n
Narang, who was disgruntled at being “ignored” for the award last year, received the trophy, that consists of a medal, citation and cash prize of Rs 7.5 lakh, from President Pratibha Patil.<\/p>\n
Besides winning four gold medals in the 2010 CWG, Narang bagged a silver in the men’s 10m air rifle singles event at the Asian Games last year. He also won a team silver at the Asian Games when he combined with Abhinav Bindra and Sanjeev Rajput in the 10m air rifle event.<\/p>\n
Among the Arjuna awardees, the most high-profile among the ones chosen this year — Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan — could not attend the function as he was recently operated upon on his injured ankle in England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"