Bhubaneswar: Odisha sprint queen Dutee Chand, along with four others, has been nominated for the BBC ‘Indian Sportswoman of the Year’ award, Monday.
On her being nominated for the covetous award, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik took to his twitter handle to congratulate the sprinter.
Congratulations #Odisha’s ace sprinter @DuteeChand on being nominated for BBC Indian Sportswomen of the year. Wish her the very best and wish her to keep inspiring.
— Naveen Patnaik (@Naveen_Odisha) February 9, 2021
India hockey team skipper Rani Rampal, chess ace Koneru Humpy, young shooter Manu Bhaker and Vinesh Phogat, who is the only Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics are the others who have been nominated alongside the Asian Games 100m silver medallist for the prestigious honour.
Dutee, who missed out on the inaugural award last year, have been again nominated by the 40-member jury panel. The winner will be decided by public voting. The fans can vote for their favourite star on any of the six language platforms of the BBC.
The voting is open till February 24 and the winner will be announced March 8, the international Women’s Day. The organisers have introduced a new category this year – ‘Emerging Player of the Year’ and the winner of which will be decided by the jury instead of voting.
Asked why a cricketer has not been nominated for the second straight year, Rupa Jha, BBC Head of Indian Languages clarified that the nominees were selected by the jury, full of experts and sports writers, and that they did not exclude any sport.
Athletics star PT Usha, who received the lifetime achievement award the last year, lauded the BBC for the initiative. She also tipped India’s mixed relay team to do well at the Tokyo Olympic Games but was candid in saying that medal will be difficult to get.
The BBC also announced that it will host a ‘Sports Hackathon’ where more than 300 Wikipedia entries of 50 Indian sportswomen will be added. It has tied up with various journalism institutes in various states in the country for the said purpose.
Para badminton player Mansi Joshi said such an initiative was required since not much information is available on many of country’s women athletes.
PNN