Three Khel Ratnas shine bright at Rashtrapati Bhawan

Olympic heroes boxer Vijender Singh and wrestler Sushil Kumar, along with four-time world champion woman pugilist MC Mary Kom, were today conferred the prestigeous Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in a glittering ceremony here.

For the first time in the history of national sports awards, three sportspersons were individually bestowed India's highest sporting honour, which comes with an enhanced cash prize of Rs7.5 lakh and a newly-designed statuette.

It was also a red letter day for 15 other sportspersons, who received the Arjuna award from president Pratibha Patil at the Ashok Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Prominent among them were cricketer Gautam Gambhir, world number seven badminton player Saina Nehwal, Asian chess champion Tania Sachdev and hockey player Ignace Tirkey.

Like the Khel Ratna winners, Arjuna awardees also got a newly-designed statuette, along with citations and an enhanced cash prize of Rs five lakh each.

For the first time in six years, a cricketer -- Gambhir -- was bestowed the Arjuna award. Since 2003, when off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was given the honour, no male cricketer had been included in the Arjuna awards list.

Gambhir is currently the world number one Test batsman in ICC rankings and has been consistently doing well as an opener.