Padukone to receive medal for promoting badminton

Ahmedabad: The Sports Journalists’ Federation of India (SJFI) has decided to confer its highest honour – the SJFI Medal – to badminton ace Prakash Padukone on Sunday.

The medal, instituted last year and first awarded to tennis legend Vijay Amritraj, is being awarded in recognition of Padukone’s vast contribution of putting India on the International badminton map with his domineering show lasting more than a decade between 1971 and 1983.

Padukone won his first senior Indian national title in 1971 at the age of 16 and thereafter went on to successfully retain it for the next nine years. In the international scene, the Bengaluru-born won the 1978 Commonwealth Games gold medal and two years later, the prestigious all-England title which catapulted him to No.1 in the world badminton rankings.

Padukone received the prestigious Arjuna Award in 1972 and the celebrated Padma Shri in 1982 by the Government of India. His elder daughter Deepika Padukone is India’s most sought after actress in Hindi movies.

The annual general meeting of the SJFI also decided to confer the SJFI Best Sportsperson of 2019 award jointly on 21-time World Champion Pankaj Advani (cue sport) and Bajrang Punia (wrestling) for their outstanding and consistent display in their chosen sports through the last year.

Young and talented Saurabh Choudhary (shooting) was picked for the SJFI Emerging Talent of the Year award for 2019.