Rural sports meet: actors lend starry touch

 At a time when rural sports are taking a backseat due to the advent of gadgets, a five-day rural sports meet started at General Thimmayya Stadium here on Monday.

Adiparashakti Seva Trust has organised the sports meet in an attempt to rekindle people’s interest in native sports that was earlier associated with life. The events in the day included arranging haystack, duck walk, tug- of war and kabaddi.

In the men’s section, Ponnachetteera Rajesh won first prize in arranging the haystack, followed by Napanda Pattu and Kalachanda Naniyappa winning second and third prize respectively. Women’s section- Kavitha, Parvathi and Vasanthi Poovaiah won in the top three order.

In duck walk, Kumar, Obalesh and Kavan Kaverappa were declared winners in the first three order respectively.

The event had a starry start. Actors Nishma Chengappa, Disha Poovaiah and Nag Kiran took part in the inaugural ceremony.

Zilla Panchayat Social Justice Standing Committee president Viju Subramani described the sports meet as a fine start when the rural sports meet are being relegated to pages of history. He promised the gathering that he would to do his mite in arranging the meet with Zilla Panchayat’s funds henceforth. Besides, the department of sports and youth empowerment should take lead in organising such events, he added.

ZP former member Suju Subbaiah regretted that youngsters have forgotten the due significance of Desi sports, that was earlier patronaged by their ancestors. DySP (Retd) Mukkateera Chotu Appaiah said sports meets help in developing a bond and also in identifying the talents.