New Delhi: Former India hockey captain Zafar Iqbal and archer Limba Ram were among the sportspersons chosen for the prestigious Padma Shri awards announced on the eve of the Republic Day.
Iqbal was a nippy winger whose deft stick-work and speed made him a star during his playing days. Iqbal was a member of the 1980 team that won the last Olympic Gold Medal in hockey for India.
He captained the Indian squad in the Asian Games (1982) and the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Arjuna awardee served as national coach from early 1993 to October 1994.
Limba, who was coach of the gold medal winning Indian team during the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
In 1989 he reached the World Championship quarter-final held in Switzerland and got the second rank in the Asian Cup in the individuals section.
Ajeet Bajaj (skiing), Jhulan Goswami (women's cricket), Devendra Jhajrija (athletics-paralympics), Syed Mohammed Arif (badminton) are the other sportspersons who will get the Padma Shri. Ravi Chaturvedi (commentary) and Prabhakar Vaidya (physical education) also have been named for Padma Shri in the sports category.
Hockey legend Dhyan Chand, shooter Abhinav Bindra, India's first individual Olympic champion, and Tenzing Norgay, the first Indian to scale the Mount Everest, were recommended by their federations for the prestigious award and so was chess legend Vishwanathan Anand.
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