Malvika Bansod, 21, made history on Monday by receiving the Chhatrapati State Sports Awards' youngest confer for badminton. Five city athletes in all, along with two coaches, received the Maharashtra's highest Sports Award in Pune in recognition of their accomplishments.

Shiv Chhatrapati State Sports Award was given out by the Maharashtra government for lifetime achievement, excellent sports mentor, athlete, Eklavya Athlete, adventure sports, and Jijamata award for three years. The festivities were attended by the governor of Maharashtra, Ramesh Bais, the chief minister, Eknath Shinde, the deputy chief minister, Ajit Pawar, and others.

Malvika won the Chhatrapati Award for the period 2021–2022, representing India in the Sudirman and Uber Cup, and cracked the top 50 among women single shuttlers in the world rankings. Malvika declared, "This honor will spur me on to work hard and win honors for the state and nation."

National swimmer Rutuja Talegaonkar, Vidarbha's third chess Grandmaster (GM), Sankalp Gupta, and skaters Kasturi Tamhankar and Aditi Dhande were among the other city athletes recognized. Sanjay Bhoskar and Darshana Pandit are the two city sports coaches that received the Best Sports Coach Award.