Sportstar Aces 2023, Popular Choice: Lakshya Sen nominated for ‘Sportstar of the Year (Male)’ award

World No. 7 Lakshya Sen started the year by winning his maiden BWF Super 500 title at India Open in January.

Lakshya Sen in action at the Indonesia Masters. | Photo Credit: Achmad Ibrahim/AP/PTI

Lakshya Sen has been nominated for the ‘Popular Choice - Sportstar of the Year (Male)’ award for the upcoming Aces Awards 2023.

World No. 7 Lakshya started the year by winning his maiden BWF Super 500 title at India Open in January. He followed it with a runner-up finish at the All-England Open. It made him the first Indian male shuttler to play the Super Series Premier final since Pullela Gopichand won the title in 2001.

• ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SPORTSTAR ACES AWARDS. CLICK HERE.

In the Thomas Cup final, playing the opening bout, Lakshya prevailed over higher-ranked Anthony Ginting and gave India a 1-0 lead. The side rode on the momentum and won the prestigious team title 3-0.

Lakshya followed this with his maiden Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham. He beat Malaysia’s Tze Young NG 19-21, 21-9, 21-16 on Monday to win the gold in badminton men’s singles. With the win, he joined an elite list of Indian male CWG gold medallists — a club that includes Prakash Padukone (1978), Syed Modi (1982) and Parupalli Kashyap (2014)

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ACES AWARDS 2023

There are 27 categories of awards this year – five Popular Choice and 22 Jury awards.

The five Popular Choice awards are Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman of the Year, National Team of the Year, Club Team of the Year and Sporting Moment of the Year.

The Jury awards are Sportsman of the Year (Cricket, Racquet Sports, Individual Sports, Track and Field, Team Sports, Parasports), Sportswoman of the Year (Cricket, Racquet Sports, Individual Sports, Team Sports, Track and Field, Parasports), Coach of the Year, Best State for Promotion of Sports, Best Corporate for Promotion of Sports, Best PSU for Promotion of Sports, Best College/University for Promotion of Sports, Lifetime Achievement Award, Young Achiever of the Year (Boy), Young Achiever of the Year (Girl), Best Talent Mentor (Grassroots Coach).

A new award called the Spirit of Sport is also being introduced. It will look at rewarding deeds of great sportsmanship.

There will also be a separate Chairperson’s Award for Sports for the Social Good, which will honour individuals or organisations that have used the power of sports to make our world a better place.

The event is powered by IDFC First Bank and supported by Indian Oil, India Cements, United India, Ramaiah University, Experimenta Science Center GD Naidu Charity, Finolex Pipes, LIC, BPCL, Samsonite, Big Basket, Nippon Paint, CRICHQ, Casagrand and Wordswork.