Koneru Humpy fueron galardonados con los premios de los mejores deportistas de la década en India. Vishy Anand incluso recibió otro galardón más por el "momento de la década" al haber ganado el Campeonato del Mundo de Ajedrez Rápido en 2017.
Tania Sachdev presentó la ceremonia para el galardón femenino
El segundo gran maestro indio de la historia y amigo "de toda la vida" de Anand, Dibyendu Barua , presentó los galardones absolutos
Humpy comentó:
Today it’s a very happy moment for me, receiving the Sportswoman of the Decade award. This is very memorable because my association with Sportstar started quite early when I was just around ten years old. I won the World Youth championship in 1997 and that’s when I was given the Sportstar Young Achievers Award. It motivated me a lot to bring many more laurels for the country. Immediately the next year I won the World Under-12 Youth Championship, and again I received one more Young Achievers Award from Sportstar.
Vishy Anand declared:
I am really delighted to win the Sportsman of the Decade (Non-Olympic Sports). For me that includes two world championships, the qualification in 2014 and the World Rapid Championship in 2017. Each one of these was very significant moment for me, and emotionally draining. All these four events, in different ways, were very special. You live through a lot. Two of them I was coming back after very difficult periods in my career and the two matches were obviously very dramatic. One went to the tie-break, one finished in the last round — you know, after a volcano ride and everything.
So, a very special decade for me, and I am very very proud that you all think that I am the sportsperson of the decade. Thank you very much, and it’s an honour to receive this award.
