The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award is to adventure sports what the Arjuna Award is to sporting excellence. Named after the famed mountaineer who was the first to scale Mount Everest, it is the highest national recognition for outstanding achievements in the field of adventure sports on land, sea and air. The award comes with a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh and a certificate.
On National Sports Day on Tuesday, as the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards were presented, four Indians were also conferred with the Tenzing Norgay Award. Here’s a look at the four athletes who received the award this year.
Premlata Agrawal for Land Adventure
Padma Shri Premlata Agarwal is a well-known name in mountaineering. She is the first Indian woman to scale the Seven Summits – the seven highest continental peaks of the world. She is also the oldest Indian woman to have scaled the Mount Everest – at the age of 48 The 54-year-old mother of two daughters started climbing mountains only at the age of 35. But age was no barrier as she found her place in the record books and atop summits.
Agarwal has already been conferred with the Padma Shri in 2013. Some of her achievements include the Island Peak Expedition in Nepal in 2004, the Karakoram Pass Expedition and the First “Indian Woman’s Thar Desert Expedition” in 2007 which involved a 40-day Camel Safari along the International Border of India.
“I am really happy to be selected for the award. I would like to thank Tata Steel and my mentor Bachendri Pal. In fact Tata Steel inspired me to inspire others,” Agarwal was quoted as saying by Daily Pioneer after receiving the award.
Rohan More for Water Adventure
Rahul More, 31, is an engineer-turned-Ocean’s Seven adventurer. Ocean’s Seven is the name for seven long-distance open-water swims, which is considered the marathon swimming equivalent of the Seven Summits mountaineering.
More has achieved the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming on 24 June 2015. He has completed six Ocean’s Seven channels during the summers of 2014, 2015 and 2016. More has been ranked among the top 10 Ocean’s Seven Swimmers in the world and is No 1 in Asia. In 2014, he was a finalist for the 2014 MSF Global Marathon Swimming Award in the Barra Award for Most Impressive Overall Year category.
More, who studied to be a software engineer was working with Cognizant in Dubai after having taken a break for about 12 years from swimming. But when he was away from home, he started training to compete as a professional swimmer. He swam the English Channel, a distance of 35 km in 13 hours and 13 minutes on July 26 2014, becoming the only second swimmer in that year to achieve that, according to a DNA report.
The 31-year-old has been trying to secure support through crowdfunding online to continue his water adventures.
Ashok Abbey – Life Time Achievement
Army man Ashok Abbey was presented with the Life Time Achievement award for his contribution to mountaineering. Back in 2003, Colonel Abbey had led the Joint Indo-Nepalese Army Everest Massif Expedition to climb Mount Everest taking the same path as Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary, to mark the 50th year of the first ever summit claim.
Ved Prakash Sharma – Life Time Achievement
A member of the Indian Air Force, Sharma received the lifetime award as well.