Govt promises sites for CWG medal-winners

KOA honours the shining stars

The State athletes who won medals at the recent Commonwealth Games have all been promised housing sites by the State Government, it was announced here on Thursday by State Housing Minister M H Ambareesh.

The felicitation function, organised by the Karnataka Olympic Association (KOA), was attended by five of the six medal winners – Ashwini Ponnappa (women’s badminton silver), Nikin Thimmaiah, SV Sunil, VR Raghunath (hockey silver) and Prakash Nanjappa (shooting silver).

Vikas Gowda (men’s discus gold), who is in the United States, training for the forthcoming Diamond League meetings as well as the Asian Games, missed out. Vikas was the only gold medallist from Karnataka at this edition of the Commonwealth Games.

KOA gave cheques of Rs 50,000 each to the five medalists apart from honouring them with Mysore petas and shawls.

KOA president K Govindraj said they would be honouring Vikas at a later date.   
Apart from the sites, the silver medalists would be getting Rs 15 lakh from the government as per an earlier announcement, while Vikas would be taking home Rs 25 lakh for his gold.

While the three hockey players are back home for a short break before the Asian Games’ camp kicks-off sometime later, the other three athletes will be busy with various competitions at the international level.

Prakash will be heading to Grenada, Spain, to take part in the Shooting World Championships which begin on September 6.

He will compete in the 10M air pistol event, where he had won the silver at the Glasgow bash. Prakash will be hoping to do well in Granada, where quota places will be up for grabs for the Olympic Games in Rio.

Meanwhile, Ashwini, who  partnered Jwala Gutta to win the women’s doubles silver medal in Glasgow, will be leaving for Denmark on August 22 to take part in the Badminton World Championships which begin in Copenhagen on August 25.

The pair will also be targetting the Asian Games, in Incheon City, South Korea, with increased confidence.

State Home Minister, KJ George, and State Transport Minister, Ramalinga Reddy, were also present at the function.