Chhattisgarh honours sporting excellence with state awards for 2023-24 to 2025-26
Raipur
The Chhattisgarh government has announced its annual sports awards — the Shaheed Rajiv Pandey Award, Shaheed Kaushal Yadav Award, Veer Hanuman Singh Award, Shaheed Pankaj Vikram Samman and Shaheed Vinod Chaubey Samman — recognising outstanding achievements by athletes, coaches and sportspersons across the 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 sporting seasons.
The awards cover conventional, indigenous and para-sports disciplines, with winners drawn from districts across the state including Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur, Korba, Rajnandgaon and Balod.
Shaheed Rajiv Pandey Award (sportspersons)
Conferred on players for sporting achievements, the award will be given to six athletes for 2023-24, six for 2024-25 and nine for 2025-26.
2023-24: Monika Sahu (Durg, fencing), Subhash Lahre (Raipur, weightlifting), Anup Yadu and Rajesh Rathore (Raipur and Janjgir-Champa, netball), Bhupendra Kumar Gadhe (Durg, softball) and Parmanand (Bilaspur, para swimming).
2024-25: Gyaneshwari Yadav (Rajnandgaon, weightlifting), Ishan Bhatnagar (Raipur, badminton), Divyanshu Netam (Durg, fencing), Bhumi Gupta (Raipur, swimming), Sonam Sharma (Durg, netball) and Kalaram Patel (Korba, para athletics).
2025-26: Vikas Kumar (Balod, archery), Kiran Pisda (Durg, football), Deepanshi Netam (Raipur, fencing), Sujay Tamboli and Ayush Makhija (Raipur and Bilaspur, badminton), Sanju Devi (Korba, kabaddi), Reema Rai (Sarangarh-Bilaigarh, soft tennis), Misha Kumari (Durg, netball) and Lucky Yadav (Mahasamund, para athletics).
Shaheed Kaushal Yadav Award
2023-24: Deepanshi Netam (Durg, fencing), Mahendra Dhurve (Rajnandgaon, volleyball), Amit Kumar (Balod, athletics) and Rakesh Kadti (Bijapur, softball).
2024-25: Manas Bhattacharya (Bilaspur, badminton) and Sukhdev (Mahasamund, para athletics).
2025-26: Divyanshu Dewangan (Raigarh, shooting), Vikram Raj (Bilaspur, archery), Divyansh Agrawal (Raipur, badminton), Sonika Rajwade (Surajpur, athletics), Swapnil Pradhan and Bhumika Chaudhary (Raigarh and Narayanpur, wushu), Pooja (Dhamtari, netball) and Nikhil Kumar Yadav (Baloda Bazar, para athletics).
Veer Hanuman Singh Award (coaches)
2023-24: Vikas Dhihi (Raipur, para judo).
2024-25: Ashok Kumar Sahu (Raipur, kayaking and canoeing).
2025-26: Ajay Deep Sarang (Raipur, weightlifting), Sanskar Diwan and Vidya Singh (Durg, wushu), Ankush Singh and Jhamita Sahu (Durg, kho-kho), Hemshikhar (Gariaband, volleyball), Arandim Debnath (Raipur, table tennis), Sneha Niyogi and Anmol Singh (Durg, judo), Semeshwar Singh (Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi, para swimming), Yash Kerketta (Durg, boxing), Srikant Pandey (Manendragarh-Bharatpur-Chirmiri, para judo), Tukesh Sahu (Durg, gymnastics) and Khushal Yadav (Rajnandgaon, hockey).
Shaheed Pankaj Vikram Samman
2023-24: Sita Sahu (Bilaspur, para wheelchair fencing), Karan Bharti and Priyanka Thakur (Baloda Bazar and Raipur, wushu), Shashank Masih (Bilaspur, rifle shooting), Rajiv Sahu and Kajal (Raipur and Durg, table tennis), Bhumika Upadhyay (Durg, hockey) and Ajinkya Singh (Bilaspur, swimming).
2024-25: Suman Yadav (Durg, football), Rohit Rajak and Geetanjali Nirmalkar (Bilaspur and Durg, hockey), K S Sai Prashant and Sushmita Som (Bilaspur, table tennis), Ramkrishna Sahu and Swati Sahu (Bilaspur, para swimming and para wheelchair fencing), Saket Samuel (Bilaspur, rifle shooting), Aman Tiwari (Raigarh, wushu) and Mansi Dumbhare (Raipur, wushu).
Shaheed Vinod Chaubey Samman
2023-24: Pravesh Chaddha (Bilaspur, shooting), Vijay Bahadur (Durg, handball), Laxman Lal Sahu (Dhamtari, wrestling), K Ravi Shankar (Bilaspur, table tennis) and Giriraj Bagri (Raipur, table tennis).
2024-25: Prabha Hussain and Sangeeta Rajagopalan (Durg, athletics and badminton), Gama Yadav (Durg, wrestling) and Pranay Nanda Majumdar (Raipur, table tennis).
2025-26: Gangeshwar (Durg, athletics), Khwaja Ahmad and Mohd Akram Khan (Durg and Raipur, volleyball), Awan Kumar Jain (Raipur, weightlifting) and Pradeep Joshi (Raipur, table tennis).
