Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday announced cash prizes for Indian wrestlers for their performance in the recently concluded World Wrestling Championships. The minister announced ₹7 lakh as cash prize for silver medallist Deepak Punia, whereas all the other four bronze medalists will be given ₹4 lakh.
In the World Wrestling Championships, Vinesh Phogat, Ravi Kumar, Bajrang Punia and Rahul Aware ended up as bronze medallists.
Rijiju had earlier given ₹14 lakh to boxer Amit Panghal for becoming the first Indian to win a silver medal in the World Boxing Championships. He also gave ₹8 lakh to Manish Kaushik for winning a bronze medal in the championships.
Aware defeated USA’s Tyler Lee Graff 11-4 in the 61-kg weight category to win the medal. However, this was not an Olympic category and as a result, the wrestler has not qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
On Friday, 22-year-old debutant Ravi Kumar won a bronze medal in the World Wrestling Championships.
Kumar had defeated Reza Atrinagharchi of Iran 6-3 to clinch the medal in the 57 kg weight category.
Bajrang Punia also won a bronze medal on Friday in the championship, defeating Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia 8-7 in the 65 kg weight category.
{{/usCountry}}Bajrang Punia also won a bronze medal on Friday in the championship, defeating Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia 8-7 in the 65 kg weight category.
{{/usCountry}}Punia had secured a spot for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Thursday after an impressive 8-1 win over North Korea’s Jong Son in the tournament.
On Wednesday, Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian wrestler to qualify for the Olympics and she would be competing in the 53 kg category. She had bagged gold medals in the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games.
In the 2018 Asian Games, she had clinched a gold medal in the 50 kg category.