The Hindu : Sport : Sreesanth, Asian Games medallists feted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007
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Sport

Sreesanth, Asian Games medallists feted

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The medal winners from Kerala at the recent Doha Asian Games and Test cricketer S. Sreesanth were felicitated by the State Government at a grand public function at the Central Stadium here on Tuesday.

Expectedly, the star of the show was Sreesanth, who was described by the Chief Minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, as "kochu midukkan" (young prodigy) while referring to the young cricketer's Man of the Match award winning performance in the Johannesburg Test against South Africa. Sreesanth and the others, including Anju Bobby George, were escorted to the venue in an open jeep and were received in traditional style amid thunderous applause by a packed audience.

Speaking after distributing a special gold medal weighing 10 sovereigns to Sreesanth and cash awards to the 11 Asian Games medallists, Mr. Achuthanandan called for a sustained effort to keep up Kerala's image in the field of sports and games.

The Chief Minister said the Government too was trying its best to promote sports and the introduction of the State Sports Super Bumper Lottery was one such effort. "I hope that the people of Kerala would support this venture whole-heartedly keeping up their overwhelming interest in sports."

Hopeful

The Sports Minister, M. Vijayakumar, who presided over the function, underlined the various measures being taken up for the promotion of sports and said he was hopeful that Kerala would emerge as the capital of Indian sport in the none-too-distant future. ``I am also hopeful that we would able to receive medallists from the 2012 London Olympics at the same venue and in a more grandiose manner. We are moving in that direction quite earnestly so that Kerala would be able to end the medal drought faced by India in the Olympics, especially in athletics," Mr. Vijayakumar said.

The cash awardees

Chitra K. Soman, Anju Bobby George, K.M. Binu, Joseph G. Abraham, T. Aboobackeer, Joseph Chakola, M. Ramachandran, Jenil Krishnan, Sinimol Paulose, O.P. Jaisha and Johnson Varghese received cash awards ranging from Rs. 3 lakhs to Rs. 50,000 from the Chief Minister. The medallists were also awarded with a traditional Kerala shawl each by the Thiruvananthapuram Mayor, C. Jayan Babu, on behalf on the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation.

Ten other athletes and six officials who represented the country in the Asian Games were awarded a gold medal weighing 8 grams and a citation by the Sports Minister. Besides the Chief Minister and the Sports Minister, the function was also attended by a galaxy of Ministers, MPs, MLAs, senior government and sports officials.

The KSSC president, T.P. Dasan, welcomed the gathering and the KSSC vice-president, K. Thankappan, proposed a vote of thanks.

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