Mangalore: State Special Olympics Team Given Farewell

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (KM) - pics - Dayanand Kukkaje

Mangalore, Sep 19: Farewell ceremony for the Special Olympics' Karnataka team was held at Town Hall in the city on Wednesday September 19.  The team members who will be moving to Shanghai, China to participate in Special Olympics World Games 2007, scheduled to be held from October 2 to October 12 were honoured. 

The felicitation programme was organized by DK District Special Teachers' Association for the Mentally Challenged. 

B Nagaraj Shetty, minister for fisheries and endowment, Vijay Kant, chairman of SOBK, C M Tallur, assistant general manager, State Bank of India, K Mohan Kamath, deputy governor, P S Prabhakar, president of Lions Club, Mangalore and Vishwanath Ayyar, vice-president of Special Olympics Bharat were chief the guests. 

A total of 14 players, three coaches and an official board member were felicitated on the occasion.

The players felicitated are Raj Kiran from Hubli (aquatics), Arun Phillips from Bangalore (cycling), Varun from Pamboor (Volleyball), Rajesh from Madikeri (Volleyball), Mangala Gowri and Dhanraj (Roller-skating) from Davanagere and Mangalore respectively, Shalini AC, Chandra Shekhar and Pooja Rai (Basketball) from Bangalore and Pamboor respectively, Raghunath and Sanjay Kumar (Power-lifting) from Bangalore, Chethan from Bangalore (Badminton), Kavitha from Bangalore (athletics) and Ruksana from Madikeri (Basket ball). 

The coaches of the Karnataka team are Thankam Jayachandran (basketball) from Bangalore, Bharati Kotari (swimming) from Hubli and Donnet D'Souza (cycling) from Mangalore, Vasanth Kumar Shetty, secretary of Saanidhya Residential School, who is moving to China as an official board member Hasan Hasif, weight-lifter were also felicitated on the occasion.