Arjuna Awardees in Shooting have been one of the prestigious awards for the shooters. India possesses several world-class shooters who brought some great honor to the country. Shooting started its journey in the winners` list of the award from the very first year of the award`s inception. In the year of 1961, Karni Singh became the first shooter of the country to win the "Arjuna Award". However, there was a huge gap of 7 years after his winning the award and in the year of 1968; Rajyashree Kumari broke the dead lock for the shooters by winning it.
After Rajyashree Kumari, Bhuvaneshwari Kumari won the award in the following year that is in 1969 and after one year gap Bhim Singh won it in 1971. When Udyan Chinubhai won the award in the year of 1972, there follows another big gap for the shooters in the scenario of the "Arjuna Award" and in 1978-79, Randhir Singh restarted entering the names of the shooters in the winners` list of the award by winning the award. After him, S.P. Chauhan won it in 1981 and in the year of 1983 there were a double winner for the game of Shooting in the names of Mohinder Lal and Soma Dutta. In 1985, the award was won by another shooter named as A.J. Pandit and Bhagirath Samai followed in the very next year of 1986. The game of Shooting faced another huge gap in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" after 1986 and it continues till the year of 1993 when Mansher Singh won the award.
After Mansher Singh won the award, there came some kind of regularity for the shooters in winning the award. In 1994, very famous shooter Jaspal Rana won the award and in 1996, Moraad A. Khan became successful to win it. In the following two years there were two shooters each who won the award jointly. In the year of 1997, the winners were Satendra Kumar and Shilpi Singh. Manavjit Singh and Roopa Unnikrishnan were the two successful shooters for the year of 1998. Vivek Singh won the award in 1999 and the very first year of the new millennium that is 2000, was probably the best year so far for the shooters in the winners` list of the "Arjuna Award" as in that year, three shooters claimed the award. These three shooters were Ms. Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat, Abhinav Bindra and Gurbir Singh. Then the game of Shooting was again winner less for the year of 2001 and in 2002, it got two winners of the award in the names of Anwar Sultan and Suma Sidharth Shirur. After that, famous shooter of India who won the Silver Medal in the Athens Olympic, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the "Arjuna Award" for his brilliant performance in the Olympics. In 2004, Deepali A. Deshpande successfully claimed the award and in the last year of "Arjuna Award" giving so far that is in 2005; Gagan Narang became the last shooter so far to win the award. Vijaya Kumar won the Arjuna award for 2007.
As the game of Shooting has been one of the top sports in India, the shooters also did show a very good performance in winning the "Arjuna Award" and it is evident that the number of award winners in the game of Shooting will increase in the future.
Year | Recipient Name | Year | Recipient Name |
1961 | Karni Singh | 1997 | Satendra Kumar, Shilpi Singh |
1968 | Rajyashree Kumari | 1998 | Manavjit Singh, Roopa Unnikrishnan |
1969 | Bhuvaneshwari Kumari | 1999 | Vivek Singh |
1971 | Bhim Singh | 2000 | Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat, Abhinav Bindra, Gurbir Singh |
1972 | Udyan Chinubhai | 2002 | Anwer Sultan, Suma Shirur |
1978-79 | Randhir Singh | 2003 | Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore |
1981 | S. P. Chauhan | 2004 | Deepali A. Deshpande |
1983 | Mohinder Lal, Soma Dutta | 2005 | Gagan Narang |
1985 | A. J. Pandit | 2006 | Vijay Kumar |
1986 | Bhagirath Samai | 2008 | Avneet Kaur Sidhu |
1993 | Mansher Singh | 2009 | Ronjan Sodhi |
1994 | Jaspal Rana | 2010 | Sanjeev Rajput |
1996 | Moraad A. Khan | - | - |