Dronacharya Award

The Dronacharya Award is a prestigious sports coaching award given in India. It is named after Dronacharya, a legendary character from the Hindu epic Mahabharata who was a master in archery and military tactics, and who taught the princes of the Kuru dynasty. The award was instituted in 1985 and is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to honor exceptional coaches who have made significant contributions to sports in India.

The Dronacharya Award is given in various categories, such as regular coaches, lifetime achievement, and those who have contributed to the development of sports for the physically challenged. The awardees receive a statuette of Dronacharya, a certificate, and a cash prize. The award is considered to be one of the highest honors for coaches in India, and it recognizes the vital role that coaches play in developing and nurturing sporting talent in the country.

History of Dronacharya Award

The Dronacharya Award is named after the legendary figure of Dronacharya, who was a master in archery and military tactics, and who taught the princes of the Kuru dynasty in the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata. The award was instituted in 1985 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, to honor exceptional coaches who have made significant contributions to sports in India.

The first Dronacharya Award was presented in 1985 to O. M. Nambiar, a renowned athletics coach. Since then, the award has been presented annually to deserving coaches in various sports disciplines such as athletics, archery, badminton, boxing, cricket, football, gymnastics, hockey, shooting, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, and other sports.

Initially, the award was given only for outstanding coaching achievements during the previous three years, but later, the eligibility period was extended to cover the entire coaching career. The award is now given in various categories such as regular coaches, lifetime achievement, and those who have contributed to the development of sports for the physically challenged.

Over the years, the Dronacharya Award has become one of the most prestigious sports coaching awards in India. It recognizes the crucial role that coaches play in nurturing and developing sporting talent in the country, and it encourages excellence in sports coaching. The award has been a source of inspiration for many coaches, and it has helped to raise the standard of sports coaching in India.

List of Dronacharya Award

Here is a list of Dronacharya Award winners in India:

1985

1. O. M. Nambiar (Athletics)

1986

1. R. D. Singh (Athletics)

1987

1. Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat (Wrestling)
2. Gurcharan Singh Gogi (Weightlifting)

1988

1. K. P. Thomas (Athletics)

1989

1. Dr. B. V. P. Rao (Weightlifting)
2. Capt. Chandrup (Hockey)

1990

1. Dr. A. K. Nandy (Swimming)
2. A. Ramana Rao (Badminton)

1991

1. V. Satyanarayana (Athletics)
2. Hargobind Singh (Wrestling)

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1992

1. Raghunandan Vasant Gokhale (Wrestling)
2. Bahadur Singh Chouhan (Athletics)

1993

1. Ilyas Babar (Athletics)
2. R. D. Singh (Athletics)

1994

1. Gurcharan Singh Tung (Athletics)
2. J. S. Bhatia (Boxing)

1995

1. P. A. Raphel (Weightlifting)
2. K. S. Jayakumar (Boxing)

1996

1. K. P. Thomas (Athletics)
2. Cdr. H. N. Bhatt (Yachting)

1997

1. R. D. Singh (Athletics)
2. Cdr. Homi D. Motivala (Yachting)

1998

1. Ilyas Babar (Athletics)
2. Harbans Singh (Hockey)

1999

1. Hargobind Singh (Wrestling)
2. Cdr. K. P. K. Nair (Yachting)

2000

1. Jose Jacob (Rowing)
2. B. I. Fernandez (Athletics)

2001

1. Shyam Sunder Rao (Table Tennis)
2. R. S. Gandhi (Wrestling)

2002

1. G. S. Sandhu (Boxing)
2. Syed Naeemuddin (Football)

2003

1. Sunder Singh (Wrestling)
2. Hony. Capt. J. Singh (Athletics)

2004

1. Maha Singh Rao (Boxing)
2. Satpal Singh (Wrestling)

2005

1. C. R. Kumar (Athletics)
2. R. D. Singh (Athletics)

2006

1. Sukhchain Singh Cheema (Athletics)
2. Pal Singh Sandhu (Boxing)

2007

1. Sunny Thomas (Basketball)
2. I. P. Singh (Hockey)

2008

1. Baldev Singh (Hockey)
2. Satyapal Singh (Wrestling)

2009

1. G. S. Sandhu (Boxing)
2. P. K. Muralidharan Raja (Billiards & Snooker)

2010

1. I. S. Malik (Wrestling)
2. Subhash B. Aggarwal (Billiards & Snooker)

2011

1. Devender Kumar Rathore (Boxing)
2. Ramphal (Wrestling)

2012

1. B. I. Fernandez (Athletics)
2. N. Lingappa (Athletics)

2013

1. Mahavir Singh (Wrestling)
2. Purnima Mahato (Archery)

2014

1. N. Kunjarani Devi (Weightlifting)
2. Vijay Sharma (Wrestling)

2015

1. Naval Singh (Athletics)
2. Anoop Kumar (Wrestling)

2016

1. Nagapuri Ramesh (Athletics)
2. Sagar Mal Dhayal (Boxing)

2017

1. Late R. Gandhi (Athletics)
2. Heera Nand Kataria (Kabaddi)

2018

1. C.A. Kuttappa (Boxing)
2. Vijay Sharma (Weightlifting)

2019

1. Mohinder Singh Dhillon (Athletics)
2. Sandeep Gupta (Table Tennis)

2020

1. Dharmendra Tiwary (Archery)
2. Purushotham Rai (Athletics)

2021

1. Vimal Kumar (Badminton)
2. Jude Felix Sebastian (Hockey)

Dronacharya Award Winners List 2022-23

2022	Raj Singh	Wrestling
	Jeevanjot Singh Teja	Archery
	Muhammad Ali Qamar	Boxing
	Suma Siddharth Shirur	Para shooting
	Sujit Mann	Wrestling
	Dinesh Jawahar Lad	Cricket
	Bimal Prafulla Ghosh	Football

First foreign coach to get Dronacharya award

There have been several foreign coaches who have been awarded the Dronacharya Award, which is an award given to coaches for their contribution in the field of sports coaching in India. However, the first foreign coach to receive the Dronacharya Award was Anatoly Tarasov, a Russian ice hockey coach.

Anatoly Tarasov was awarded the Dronacharya Award in 1998 for his contribution to the development of ice hockey in India. He had coached the Indian national ice hockey team in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and had also trained several Indian coaches in the sport. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest ice hockey coaches of all time, having led the Soviet Union to several Olympic and world championship titles in the 1950s and 1960s.