Ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, 2017 World Weightlifting Champion in the 48kg category, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, former Asian Games gold medallist tennis player Somdev Devvarman and India's first Paralympic gold medalist, Murlikant Petkar were on Thursday conferred with the Padma Shri award - the country's fourth-highest civilian award.
Petkar won an individual gold medal in the 1972 Summer Paralympics, in Heidelberg, Germany. He set a world record in the 50 m freestyle swimming event, at 37.33 seconds.
In the same games, he participated in javelin, precision javelin throw and slalom. He was a finalist in all three events.
Currently ranked third in the BWF rankings, Srikanth is looked upon as a future Olympic champion shuttler.
The 24-year-old shuttler's real rise came last season when he won as many as six titles including four Super Series titles. He won the French Open, Denmark Open, Australian Open, Indonesia Open, India Open and China Open.
A product of Pullela Gopichand badminton academy in Hyderabad, Srikkanth also finished runners-up in last year's Singapore Open.
Manipuri weightlifter Mirabai Chanu claim to fame includes silver medal in the women's 48kg weight class at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow.
But her real claim to fame came last year when she lifted a world record of 194kg in total (85 kg snatch and 109 kg clean & jerk) to win the gold in the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships held at Anaheim, CA, United States.
(With PTI inputs)
