HYDERABAD: Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday honoured three Indian sportspersons — PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar who excelled in the Rio Olympic Games — besides badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, presenting them with BMW cars at a function here.
While silver-medallist Sindhu was gifted a red-coloured BMW car, her coach Gopichand and gymnast Dipa were presented with white-coloured ones and bronze-medallist Sakshi got a dark-grey BMW.
Tendulkar, who was also the goodwill ambassador of the Indian team at Rio, handed over the keys to the players at a function held at the Gopichand Badminton Academy.
Sachin, who took selfies with the Olympic stars, was all praise for them for their excellent performance. “I watched all your games with a lot of curiosity. You have won laurels for the nation. On behalf of the nation, I extend my congratulations to all the players,” he said and hoped that they would strive for bringing gold medals at the next Olympics.
Tendulkar, especially, referred to the performance of Dipa. He said that though Dipa could not win a medal, she had won the hearts of the people of the country with her stupendous show. He also appreciated the efforts of Gopichand in grooming several champions.
Sindhu said she was happy to receive the valuable gift from Sachin. “Last time, when I received the first car – Swift Dzire – from Sachin sir, he told me that he would present me with another car if I win the medal at Olympics. Today, my dream has come true. I thank my coach Gopichand for helping me travel to this stage. I will put in my best efforts to get gold medals in my future tournaments,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Sindhu said she was happy to receive the valuable gift from Sachin. “Last time, when I received the first car – Swift Dzire – from Sachin sir, he told me that he would present me with another car if I win the medal at Olympics. Today, my dream has come true. I thank my coach Gopichand for helping me travel to this stage. I will put in my best efforts to get gold medals in my future tournaments,” she said.
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