Jammu: Navjot Singh became the youngest athlete of the state to be conferred with the Sher-i-Kashmir Sports Award on Tuesday.
Navjot received the award at an impressive investiture ceremony hosted after a gap of 22 years.
The 16-year-old, who was adjudged the best sportsperson for 2008-09, got the award in recognition of his impressive outing at the 9th Sub Jr. National Aerobic Gymnastics at Rajkot in 2007 where he won a silver medal.
The high, though, came for the youngster in the following year when he bagged a couple of gold medals at the same venue during the Sub Junior Nationals.
"It is a great feeling... To get the recognition in such a young age... It will only motivate me to bring more laurels to my country," Navjot told PTI after receiving the award from Chief Minister Omar Abdullah here on Tuesday.
Interestingly, Navjot is one of the 13 gymnasts of the state, who were awarded for their efforts here on Tuesday.
"I am on top of the world, 13 of our wards have been awarded today. Eeven with minimum facilities our children have been able to prove their worth at the big stage and todays award certifies that," said S P Singh, who along with Krupali Singh, had coached these youngsters.
Sonia Sharma, Harleen Singh, Sonal Gupta, Kamal Singh, Seema Mehra, Palak Kour, Tejpal Kour, Manvinder Singh, Manpreet Kour, Mitali, Mayank Jain and Jaskaran Singh were the other gymnasts who were awarded on the occasion.
The athletes from other disciplines who got the award include Tashi Thinles, Arif Mohammad Khan, Sakina Bashir, Amandeep Singh, Raahil Farooq Shah, Mehjabeena Akhtar and Shoiab Zahoor Mir, all for skiing.
Footballers Mehraj-ud-Din Wadoo, Ishfaq Ahmad, Arun Malhotra, Jonny Kumar, fencers Rashid Ahmad Choudhary and Ujjwal Gupta, apart from Judokas Bhanu Pratap and Nippu Jamwal also bagged the Sher-i-Kashmir prestigious Award.
Kuldeep Handoo (Vushu), Rita Devi (Handball), Younus Nazi Kochey (Snooker), Bilquis Mir (Kayaking), Mohammad Ali (Taekwondo) and Kuldip Kumar Gupta (Tug-of-War) were among others, who were awarded on the occasion.
Sher-i-Kashmir Sports Awards were instituted in 1978. However, after 1991 when the militancy began in the state, the awards were not given. After that, the awards return in 2002 to be continued since then.