‘She deserves it’: Sahdev Yadav backs Mirabai Chanu for Arjuna Award after Asian Games silver

The medal at last ended Chanu’s long wait at the Asian Games; she had been absent from the 2018 Games because of an injury and finished fourth at the 2023 Hangzhou Games, where a thigh injury impacted her clean and jerk.

The silver medal thus completed Chanu’s collection of medals won at the Olympics, the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, and at the same time brought an end to India’s 28-year wait for a weightlifting medal at the Asian Games since Karnam Malleswari’s silver medal at the 1998 Bangkok Games.

Yadav also backed Chanu’s long-standing desire to receive the Arjuna Award and said he would personally raise the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“She has a dream, and she says it again and again, so the government should think. I will request this time when I meet the Prime Minister to give the Arjuna Award to Mirabai. She has a dream. She wants to have Arjuna’s picture, photo, and statue in her house.

“If a child has a dream, it should be fulfilled. And she deserves it. She got the Padma Shri and Khel Ratna, but she has a dream: ‘Why didn’t I get the Arjuna Award?’ She has a passion in her heart, so she should fulfil it.

“And we will all try. Through you. So, you do it. You do it. We will do it too.”

–IANS

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