Hooda announces to prize money for future Oly medal winners

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced that the state would double the prize money for its athletes who will win medals in the next Olympic Games, making it a whopping Rs 5 crore for gold, Rs 3 crore for sliver and Rs 2 crore for bronze.

In a function to honour the London Olympic medal winners, participants and their coaches from the state here, Hooda also announced Rs 2 crore for development of bronze medallist grappler Yogeshwar Dutt's Bhainswal Kalan village in Sonepat, Rs 1 crore each for development of Malothi village of silver-medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar in Jhajjar and shooter Gagan Narang's village Shimla Gujran in Panipat.

These three and shuttler Saina Nehwal, who also has her roots in Haryana, were given cash awards and also presented with Audi Q-5 cars, while other Olympic participants from the State were given special-edition of Maruti Suzuki's SX-4, besides LED TV, cameras and DVD players.

Hooda also announced that the State Government would help Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar, Gagan Narang, Nehwal and boxer Vijender Singh in setting up their academies.
Meanwhile, Sushil was honoured with cash prize of Rs 1.50 crore, whereas Yogeshwar, Gagan and Saina were handed cash prize of Rs one crore each.

Krishna Poonia, participant in discus throw got Rs 31 lakh, whereas other participants in the London Olympics, boxer Vijender Singh, women wrestler Geeta Phogat and wrestler Amit Kumar were honoured with cash prize of Rs 21 lakh each.

Among other players, Jai Bhagwan, Manoj Kumar, Sanjeev Rajput, Sardara Singh, Vikas Krishan, Seema Antil, Sumit Sangwan, Om Parkash, Annuraj Singh and Sandeep Singh were honoured with Rs 11 lakh each.

The coaches of medal winner players were presented cash awards of Rs three lakh each, whereas coaches of participant players were given Rs one lakh each.