Chhatrapati for Sankalp, Malvika

 

 

 

Rutuja, Kasturi and Aditi also bag top State award n Sports Reporter CHESS Grandmaster Sankalp Gupta and ace shuttler Malvika Bansod led a host of Nagpur players and coaches to be conferred with highest Maharashtra State awards for sportspersons. The Maharashtra Government, through a GR released final list of players to have won the awards for three preceding years — 2019-20, 2020-21 and 21-22, on Friday. Apart from Sankalp and Malvika, the other players who have been selected for the prestigious Shiv Chhatrapati Awards are Rutuja Talegaonkar (swimming, 2020-21), Kasturi Tamhankar (skating, 21-22) and Aditi Dhande (skating, 2020-210). In 2021, Sankalp Gupta became India’s 71st Grandmaster. He took 895 days to become IM and 24 days to become GM.

 

He secured the first IM norm in 2017 and became IM in 2019. No other GM from India has earned the title in such a short time. He became Nagpur’s second and Maharashtra’s 10th GM. He will get the award for the year 2021-22. Malvika, who broke into the women’s singles world top 100 earlier this year, will get Shiv Chhatrapati award for the year 2021-22. She won silver medal at the Syed Modi International 2022 tournament. She represented India in Sudirman Cup and Uber Cup in 2021. She also became India No 1 in women’s singles in BAI ranking in 2022. Rutuja has taken pool by fire. With more than 200 medals to her credit, the swimmer will get the award for 2020-21. She won record six medals including three golds in Inter-University Swimming Championship at Jalandhar in 2019. She represented India in the World Junior Championship at Israel in 2019 and in Asian Open Water Championship in 2019. International skater Kasturi has represented India in 2021 at Colombia.

 

In 2021 nationals she won one gold, one silver and one bronze. This year she won a gold, two silver and one bronze in the nationals. She participated in national tournaments for nine times and won nine golds, 12 silver and nine bronze medals. Aditi had excellent performance in events organised by Roller Skating Federation of India and School Games Federation of India. She has 4 golds, 4 bronze and one silver at National level and 15 gold and 2 bronze at State-level meets. In School Games Nationals, Aditi has 4 golds, 2 silver and 1 bronze. In state meets, she has 13 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze. She has been participating in state championships for four years in a row.