Bangalore: Vianni, Sharanya, 12 Others Conferred Ekalavya Awards
Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)
Bangalore, Aug 30: Karnataka chief minister, D V Sadananda Gowda, conferred ‘Ekalavya’ awards to Viani Antonio D' Cunha (chess), Sharanya Mahesh (roller skating), both Mangaloreans, along with 12 others at a programme organized by the department of youth services and sports here on Monday August 29.
Also, Lifetime Achievement awards were presented to P S Vishwanath (athletics, volleyball, kabaddi), and M S Madegowda (volleyball).
Viani, in fact, was the youngest of the awardees.
The other awardees were H M Jyothi (athletics), Robin Uthappa (cricket), Amulya Kamal (football), S Jeeva Kumar (kabaddi), C R Santhosh (kho-kho), Poojashree Venkatesh (tennis), V Nethravathi (power-lifting), Shubha Chittaranjan (swimming), Ravi Kumar (volleyball) and C P R Sudhir Kumar (weightlifting).
Speaking after handing over the awards, the chief minister revealed that the government has plans to open Karnataka Sports Academy for Excellence, aimed at helping the sportspersons of the state to better their performances and win medals at international level meets. “This academy will do everything that is necessary to equip the sportspersons from the state to bag medal at the 2016 Olympics,” he announced.
File Pics of Sharanya and Viani
Gowda said that on the lines of policies relating to various fields that have been announced by the government, there are plans, for the first time ever, to bring out sports policy. He revealed that a committee of experts has been formed for framing of the policy. “Stadiums have been built in 25 district and 118 taluk headquarters to enable the local talents to hone their skills. Steps have also been taken to upgrade facilities in stadiums in four districts. We have newly set up two state level sports schools and 23 district level sports schools apart from five sports hostels. Synthetic tracks have already been laid in Chitradurga, Gadag, Belgaum, and Kodagu districts. The process of laying synthetic tracks at Hosadurga, Chitradurga, Shimoga, Mangalore and Mysore are in progress,” he said.
Deputy chairman of Karnataka Sports Authority, Girish Patel, MLA, Chandrakant Bellad, Karnataka Olympics Association president, Govindaraju, principal secretary of the department of youth services and sports, I R Perumal, and director, Suresh, were present.