Narang conferred Khel Ratna, Zaheer unable to attend function

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) Ace shooter Gagan Narang, who
notched up four gold medals at last year's Commonwealth Games,
was on Monday conferred the country's highest sporting honour
-- the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award -- in a glittering
ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here.
The 28-year-old rifle shooter, who was the first Indian
marksman to qualify for next year's London Olympics with a
bronze in the World Championships last year, was an automatic
choice for the prestigious award.
Narang, who was disgruntled at being "ignored" for the
award last year, collected the trophy that consists of a
medal, citation and cash prize of Rs 7.5 lakh from President
Pratibha Patil.
Besides winning four gold medals in the 2010 CWG, Narang
bagged a silver in the men's 10m air rifle singles event at
the Asian Games last year. He also won a team silver at the
Asian Games when he combined with Abhinav Bindra and Sanjeev
Rajput in the 10m air rifle event.
Among the Arjuna awardees, the most high-profile among
the ones chosen this year -- Indian pace spearhead Zaheer Khan
-- could not attend the function as he recently underwent
surgery on his injured ankle in England.
Others who were also not present due to varied reasons
were tennis ace Somdev Devvarman, gymnast Ashish Kumar and
discus thrower Vikas Gowda.
Badminton ace Jwala Gutta and India's first woman world
champion Tejaswini Sawant, who clinched the top honours in the
50m rifle prone event, were among the star athletes who
received the Arjuna award.
Suranjoy Singh (Boxing), Sunil Chhetri (Football) and
Rajpal Singh (Hockey), also collected their trophies
personally.