The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Children make a ‘special’ effort to emerge winners

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 29, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Children make a ‘special’ effort to emerge winners

Staff Reporter

Though lagging behind in technical aspect, they excelled within the space given to them

HYDERABAD: It was a slip between the cup and the lip for M.Venugopal Reddy. It took him years of toil and training to participate in an international competition, but the medal slid off his hands by a gap of two seconds.

Nevertheless, he was a hero back at home. His effort and not the medal earned him the loudest applause at the felicitation ceremony organised for the special children from the State.

They were part of the Indian team that participated in the 12th Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai.

Medals won

Hosted by Special Olympics Bharat Andhra Pradesh (SOBAP), the event on Sunday saw the children and their coaches in high spirits, and they have a reason to be so. The team of eight children contributed seven medals to the 148 won by India in Special Olympics. Madas Shekhar from Abhilasha Vocational Training Centre brought gold in Badminton while Nasreen Begum from Niloufer Special School got two medals, silver and bronze, in 100 metres and 2X100 metres relay, respectively. Jahangir Pasha from the National Institute of Mentally Handicapped, Meena Devi Reddy from Radha Institute, D.Kiran Kumar from Sweekar and Kishore Sagar from Andhra Mahila Sabha won bronze medals in Roller Skating, Bocce, Handball and Soccer respectively.

D. Mahesh from NIMH, like Venugopal Reddy, missed the bronze when his team ended up at fourth place in basketball. Taking a note of the efforts of coaches E.Swamy, V. Kalyanalakshmi, Vijayalakshmi and Bilkis Fatima in mentoring and caring for the children, the Area Director of SOBAP, I.H.Surati commended the victory as a team endeavour. Though lagging behind in technical aspect, the children excelled within the space given to them, he said.

Vice President A. Panduranga Rao said that the children were not well received back at home.

Chief Guest Lion Basaveshwar Raofelicitated the participants and coaches. D. S. K. Rao, the President of SOBAP presided.

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