Rana awarded PSPB Sportsperson of the Year; MM Somaya Lifetime Award

New Delhi, Aug 10 (UNI) Doha Asian Games triple gold medallist pistol shooter Jaspal Rana has been awarded the 2006-07 PSPB Sportsperson of the Year.

The award, which carries Rs 25,000, was presented to the ace shooter by Union Minister of State for Petroleum Dinsha Patel at the seventh Petroleum Sports Promotion Board's (PSPB) annual awards function here last night.

Woman chess grandmaster Koneru Humpy, cueist Pankaj Advani, top woman shuttler Saina Nehwal and tennis player Rohan Bopanna were named Elite Sportspersons of the Year while Karan Rastogi, S Sreesanth, Tushar Khandekar, K Sasikiran and Chitra K Soman were honoured with Meritorious Sportspersons of the Year.

Former Indian hockey captain M M Somaya was bestowed with the Life Time Achievement Award. The award carries Rs 50,000. An Arjuna awardee, Somaya was a member of the gold-winning Indian team in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

An array of 100 sportspersons from badminton, cricket, athletics, chess, golf, hockey, cue sports, shooting, tennis and table tennis shared Rs 11,79,500 for their outstanding performances during the 2006-07 season.

Prominent among those who received their awards were cricketer Virender Sehwag, badminton player Chetan Anand, table tennis players Achanta Sharath Kamal and Poulomi Ghatak, cueist Manan Chandra and golfer Simarjeet Singh.

Notable absentees included cricketers Wasim Jaffer, S Sreesanth, Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma, tennis player Rohan Bopanna, shuttlers Anup Sridhar and Saina Nehwal.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) claimed the Trophy for Excellence for contributing the highest number of sportspersons who won laurels at the international level. ONGC also retained the Petroleum Minister's Trophy for garnering maximum points in the inter-institutional tournaments in 15 disciplines, ahead of Indian Oil and Oil India.

The Awards: Life Time Achievement award: M.M. Somaya (hockey, BPCL).

Sportsperson of the Year: Jaspal Rana (shooting, ONGC).

Elite Sportspersons of the Year: Koneru Humpy (chess, ONGC), Pankaj Advani (cue sports, ONGC), Saina Nehwal (badminton, BPCL) and Rohan Bopanna (tennis, IOC).

Meritorious Sportspersons of the Year: Karan Rastogi (tennis, ONGC), S. Sreesanth (cricket, BPCL), Tushar Khandekar (hockey, BPCL), K.

Sasikiran (chess, ONGC) and Chitra K. Soman (athletics, ONGC).

Trophy for Excellence: ONGC; Petroleum Minister's Trophy: ONGC; Petroleum Secretary's Trophy: IOC; PSPB President's Trophy: Oil India Limited UNI PDS TB BD1703