Commonwealth, Asian Games Winners Honoured

Statue, Trivandrum: The Government of Kerala, celebrated December 30 as Sports Victory day in honour of the athletes who had won medals in the Commonwealth and Asian games this year. At the function, which was organised at the Central stadium on Thursday evening, various ministers led by the Chief Minister, distributed mementos and cash prizes to the athletes and their trainers.

All athletes who struck gold were awarded 10 lakh rupees each, while the silver medalists received 7.5 lakh and bronze medalists received five lakh each. Totally an amount of 1.67 crores were distributed to 18 sportsmen and women and six coaches who received one lakh each. Sini George, who was part of the 4x100 meter relay team that won gold at both the Asian and Commonwealth games, was awarded 20 lak rupees. Preeja Sasidharan who won the gold and the silver for the 10,000 and 5,000 meters at the Asian games, was awarded 17.5 lakh.

The Rs. 10 lakh cash award earlier announced to badminton player SH Prannoy for his silver medal in the Youth Olympics was also distributed along with the others.



CM hands over the check to Preeja Shreedharan as Opposition leader Oomen Chandy and, ministers MA Baby and M vijayakumar watches

The Chief Minister, in his speech, referred to the players as the “children of Sports Kerala”. He said: “Kerala aims to contribute a lot to a country, which is generally weak in sports. We have already started work on the facilities like synthetic tracks and swimming pools in expectation of the 35th National Games to be held in Kerala. We are already ready for it. However, it is delayed as the 34th games are yet to happen.”

Before the function, the athletes took out a victory lap from Kanakakunnu till Central Stadium. Ministers M Vijayakumar, MA Baby, V Surendranpillai, Kadanapalli Ramachandran and Opposition Leader Oommen Chandi etc. accompanied the CM in distributing the awards.