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‘Best-ever support to Indian athletes by any state govt’
Olympic medallists felicitated by UP govt, mesmerized by grand ceremony at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow
LUCKNOW The event organized by the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government to felicitate Tokyo-returned sporting icons of India was big and grand in every way. All medalists looked mesmerized by the hospitality extended to them at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Thursday.
Two giant screens showed the footage of India’s golden boy Neeraj Chopra, who created history by bagging India’s first-ever gold medal in athletics. This wasn’t all. Clips of PV Sindhu’s stellar performance in the badminton court, fine display of skills by wrestlers Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Bajrang Punia and others like Mirabai Chanu and Lovlina Borgohain entertained the 10,000-odd young athletes who came here from all parts of UP to witness the felicitation ceremony.
Colourful dance performances by troupes of various cultural and traditional organizations in and outside the stadium and well-decorated carts to ferry the medalists from the entrance to the main stage were among the highlights of the event. Fans were seen chasing Chopra and Sindhu most for their autographs and selfies with them.
Besides chief minister Yogi Adityanath Singh, governor Anandiben Patel, deputy chief ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya gave away the awards to the medalists. UP information department’s special video titled ‘Sashakt Yuva, Sashakt Pradesh’ drew applause from the athletes and young fans.
Neeraj Chopra was given the biggest purse of ₹2 crore, followed by silver medalists – wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu ( ₹1.5 crore each) while bronze medalists – wrestler Bajrang Punia and boxer Lovlina Borgohain got ₹1 crore each. Wrestler Deepak Punia and golfer Aditi Ashok were given ₹50 lakh each.
The 32 members of both the men’s and women’s hockey teams were given ₹50 lakh each. The men’s hockey team won bronze while their women counterparts finished fourth at the Tokyo Games.
In a special gesture, Vijay Sharma, the coach of Mirabai Chanu, was given ₹10 lakh, whereas the hockey teams’ staff members too were given ₹10 lakh each. Varanasi’s Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, who was part of India’s men’s hockey team, was given ₹1.25 crore, whereas women’s team player and Meerut’s Vandana Katariya was given ₹75 lakh.
As promised by the state government, eight athletes from Uttar Pradesh, who participated at the Tokyo Games, but couldn’t make a podium finish, were also given ₹25 lakh each as a token of appreciation. They included walk-racer Priyanka Goswami, javelin thrower Shivpal Singh, shooter Saurabh Chaudhary, Mairaj Ahmed Khan, boxer Satish Kumar, sailor Arvind Singh, discus thrower Seema Punia and javelin thrower Annu Rani.
Shooter Chaudhary, Mirabai Chanu and her coach Vijay Sharma skipped the event for personal reasons.
Neeraj Chopra, in his brief but impressive address, was amazed to see such a huge gathering for Indian athletes on Thursday. “I was running around the stadium all alone after winning the gold medal at Tokyo. But today, I felt the real crowd support. It looks like a ceremony of India, not only of UP.”
“I can see many more Neerajs sitting in the spectators’ gallery and I wish that one day some of them would surely be winning medals for UP,” Chopra said after he was cheered by young athletes from the spectators’ gallery.
Ace shuttler PV Sindhu, who won her second Olympic medal at Tokyo after a silver at the Rio Olympics in 2016, admired the UP government for holding such a grand felicitation ceremony for Olympic medalists.
“This is the best-ever support given by the any state government to the athletes of India. I wish that such things would continue to inspire Indian athletes to win more medals in the future Olympics,” she said.
Other athletes like women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal, hockey player Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Lovlina Borgohain, Ravi Dahiya, Bajrang Punia, men’s hockey captain Manpreet Singh also shared their experiences at the Tokyo Games.
Manpreet said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words a day before the bronze-medal game were very inspirational. “We were disappointed after losing the semi-finals, but the PM’s words made a big difference and we could create history.”
