Jayanta Talukdar’s parents celebrate at their residence in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Aug. 9: Ace archer Jayanta Talukdar has hit a bull’s eye. Talukdar is one of the 14 who have been named for the Arjuna Awards, to be conferred on August 29 by President Pratibha Patil.

The list of the awardees has been sent to the sports ministry for approval, but celebrations are already on at the Talukdar household.

A team of officials from the Directorate of Sports, led by director Dhruba Hazarika, conveyed an official confirmation of the news from the sports ministry to Talukdar’s parents. “The government is planning to felicitate him. It is a moment to cherish for all of us as it has taken so long to come,” Hazarika said.

Jayanta will be the third from Assam to bag the coveted award after Monalisha Baruah Mehta in 1988 and Bhogeswar Barua in 1966.

Tata Archery Academy trainee, Talukdar’s name was nominated by the Jharkhand government.

“It came as a pleasant surprise when some mediapersons called me this morning to inform me about the award. I immediately called up Jayanta who, too, was not aware of this,” Jayanta’s father Ranjan Talukdar said. The man of the moment, however, was not entirely taken by surprise. “I was expecting it on the basis of my performance last year. I came to know about it from my father and then confirmed from my academy authorities,” he told The Telegraph over the phone. Some of the others named for the awards include:

Anjum Chopra (cricket), Jyoti Sunita Kullu (hockey), Subhajit Saha (table tennis), Gita Rani (weightlifting), K.M. Binu (athletics), Vijay Ku-mar (shooting), Vijender Kumar (boxing), Geetika Jakhar (wrestli-ng), Chetan Anand (badminton), Saurav Ghosal (squash), Navneet (kabaddi) and P. Harikrishna (chess).

However, contrary to expectations, M.C. Mary Kom was not nominated for the Khel Ratna Award.