FMSCI Nominates CS Santosh & Aishwarya Pissay For 2020 Arjuna Award

The Federation of Motor Sport Clubs of India (FMSCI) has announced the names of motorsport athletes CS Santosh and Aishwarya Pissay for the 2020 Arjuna Award - the highest civilian honour for sports in the country. Both the Santosh and Pissay have made great strides in the world motorsport, more specifically rallying. CS Santosh is part of the Hero MotoSports Team Rally and has participated in the challenging Dakar rally for the past five years, along with a number of Indian and international rallies since 2013. Aishwarya Pissay is backed by TVS Racing and has been made her international debut in 2018. She won the 2019 FIM Bajas World Cup in the women's juniors' category, becoming the only Indian to win a world title in motorsport.

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-@FMSCI is delighted to nominate top former racer Akbar Ebrahim for the prestigious #DronacharyaAward and bikers CS Santosh and Aishwarya Pissay for the #ArjunaAward this year. pic.twitter.com/6IW61xBIUJ

— FMSCI (@fmsci) June 1, 2020

In addition, the FMSCI has also put forth former multiple national championship winner Akbar Ebrahim's name for the consideration of the Dronacharya award. Ebrahim has had an illustrious career in domestic racing and has also been a racing coach and an instructor. The former FMSCI president also runs a karting team for young drivers, mentoring young drivers at the grassroots level of motorsport.

Aishwarya Pissay competed in the Baja Aragon rally in 2018, marking her international debut

Speaking on the nomination, Aishwarya Pissay said, "I am extremely humbled to be nominated for the Arjuna Award for Motorsports category.  It is a great moment of honour for me to be considered for this prestigious award in sports excellence in the country, for my achievements.  I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to FMSCI for nominating me, and to TVS Racing for their continued support over the years. It is very encouraging to see how motorsports has been recognised and accepted as a sport in India since the past few years.  I extend my best wishes to all the other Arjuna Award nominees for this year."

CS Santosh has been participating in the Dakar Rally since 2015 and is the first Indian to do so

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Under the rules issued by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for the Arjuna Award, the federation can nominate a maximum of three names for consideration. In order to be eligible for the coveted award, the athletes need to have consistently good performance for the past four years at the international level, and also show qualities of leadership, sportsmanship and discipline.

Motorsport was officially recognised as a sport by the Indian government in 2015, but it wouldn't be until 2019 that a motorsport athlete would receive the Arjuna Award. Ace rally driver and multiple APRC winner Gaurav Gill became the first Indian motorsport athlete to receive the honour.