Minister
Thiru.SIVA V. MEYYANATHAN Felicitated TamilNadu Athletes and Coaches
from TOKYO OLYMPICS 2020 and WORLD ATHLETIC U20 CHAMPIONSHIPS 2021
organised by TAMILNADU ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
The
Tamilnadu Athletics Association Felicitation Function held at Media
Hall, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai, on Friday, the 27th August,
2021 to celebrate and recognize the achievements of our State’s Athletes
and Coaches who had taken part in the OLYMPIC GAMES at TOKYO - 2020 and
World Under-20 Athletics Championships at Nairobi.
Thiru.
Siva. V. Meyyanathan, Hon’ble Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports,
together with former Olympians and Arjuna Awardees from our State graced
the occasion to felicitate the above Athletes and Coaches.
For
the first time in the history of Tamil Nadu state, as much as five
athletes represented India and taken part in the Tokyo Olympics. In
addition, three young athletes from the State had taken part in the
World Athletics U20 Championships held at Nairobi, Kenya on behalf of
India.
Arokia
Rajiv and Naganathan Pandi among the men, Revathi Veeramani, Subha
Venkatesan and Dhanalakshmi Sekar among the women represented India in
Men’s 4 x 400m relay and Mixed 4 x 400m relay races at Tokyo.
The
Men’s 4 x 400m relay team in which Arokia Rajiv took part narrowly
missed a chance to enter the final but credited with a new ASIAN RECORD
time of 3 minutes 0.25 seconds.
Never
before in the history of Tamil Nadu state’s athletics so many athletes
represented at a single edition of the Olympic Games. In the previous
Rio Olympic Games in 2016 only four athletes from Tamil Nadu were part
of the Indian team in athletics.
In
Tokyo, for the first time a record number of THREE WOMEN ATHLETES from
the State participated amongst the total FIVE athletes, that included
the two men as mentioned above.In the World Athletics U20 championships
held at Nairobi, Kenya, (Aug 18-22) our State’s athlete Barath Sridhar
had won a Bronze Medal as part of the Indian Mixed 4 x 400m relay squad.
Another athlete from our state, S. Nagarjunan, was also part of the
relay team as a reserve runner. In triple jump, Tamil Nadu’s Donald
Makimairaj barely missed the bronze medal in just 3 cm to a French boy
Simon Gore. However his fourth place finish was an improvement from his
predecessor K. Kamal Raj, who finished fifth in this event in the
previous edition of the World Junior Championships held in 2018 at
Tampere, Finland.
Tokyo
Olympians P. Naganathan (4x400m men’s relay), V. Revathi, V. Subha and
S. Dhanalakshmi (all 4x400m mixed relay) were given Rs.1 lakh each. S.
Barath, who was part of the bronze winning 4x400m mixed relay team in
Nairobi, was also given Rs. 1 lakh while other participants — M. Donald
(triple jump), S. Nagarjunan (4x400m relay) were given Rs.50,000 each.Coaches were honoured with Rs.20,000 each.
The
dignitaries consented Guests of Honour apart from Chief Guest &
Hon’ble Sports Minister are (1) The Member Secretary, Sports Development
Authority of Tamil Nadu, (2)Thiru. Aadhav Arjun, President, Tamilnadu
Basket Association (3) Thiru. Manikandan, Managing Director, MK Group
of Companies, (4) Thiru. Anbazhagan, M.L.A. and Vice President of TNAA
(5) Thiru. Myilvahanan, I.P.S. and (6) Dr. Sripriya Gowrishankar, MD,
Besten World Class Pumps.
CASAGRAND
are the main Title Sponsor while MK Group of Companies co-sponsored the
above function. Besten Pumps and Chennai Silks are the Associate
Sponsors.
The
function held in a grand manner so as to encourage the budding athletes
from the State and to inspire many other youngsters to take part in
athletics and win laurels for the country in the near future
