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Indian women's hockey player Lalremsiami expressed happiness after receiving the prestigious Arjuna Award, 2025, saying the recognition would motivate young players, particularly those from her home state of Mizoram, to pursue their sporting dreams.
Speaking to ANI after receiving the award on Friday, Lalremsiami said she was particularly happy to become the first person from Mizoram to receive the Arjuna Award, adding that people across the state had congratulated her on the achievement. "I am very happy, because especially from Mizoram, I am receiving the Arjuna Award for the first time. So all the Mizoram people, everyone is happy and they are congratulating me, and yeah, I do believe that this award will motivate a lot of young players," Lalremsiami told ANI. Speaking about her responsibility towards aspiring hockey players in the state, she said she felt encouraged when parents, children and young players approached her expressing their desire to take up the sport. "I feel very good when I go to Mizoram and many parents, players, and kids come and tell me that they also want to play hockey. Hearing that gives me a lot of motivation, so I am very happy, and I will try to help those kids who want to play hockey as much as I can," she said. Lalremsiami dedicated the honour to young people across India, particularly those from Mizoram, and urged them to dream big and work hard to achieve their goals. "I just want to dedicate this award to the young generationsespecially all the Indian young generations, and especially those from Mizoram. Because for us, we couldn't even imagine receiving such a prestigious award like the Arjuna Award. But today I received it, and I believe there are many talented young people in Mizoram. So this is an example for them toothat if they dream big and keep working hard, this opportunity is there for them as well," she concluded. The National Sports Awards are given every year to recognise and reward excellence in sports. Based on the recommendations of the Selection Committee chaired by a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice (Retd.) Arun Kumar Mishra, the Government has decided to confer awards on the following sportspersons, coaches and entities under various categories. The 'Arjuna Award for outstanding performance in Sports and Games' is given for good performance over a period of the previous four years and for showing qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and a sense of discipline. The athletes who received award are: Tejaswin Shankar (athletics), Muhammad Ajmal Variyathodi (athletics), Priyanka Goswami (athletics), Treesa Jolly (badminton), Gayatri Gopichand (badminton), Narender (boxing), Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (chess) Divya Jitendra Deshmukh (chess), Dhanush Srikanth (deaf shooting), Lalremsiami (hockey), Rajkumar Pal (hockey), Surjeet (kabaddi), Pooja (kabaddi), Rudransh Khandelwal (para-shooting), Ekta Bhyan (para-shooting), Arvind Singh (rowing) and Akhil Sheoran (shooting). (ANI)
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