Bindra declares open Dasara sports meet

Mysore, Oct 4 (UNI) The three-day sports meet, as part of the Dasara festival was inaugurated in the City of Palaces in the presence of galaxy of artistes today.

The meet, organised by the state youth services was declared opened by Abhinav Bindra, country's first-ever individual gold medalist in the Olympics at a colourful function held at the Chamundivihar sports stadium.

Vijendra Singh, who bagged brozne medal in boxing at the Beijing Olympics was the chief guest. However, wrestler and another Bronze medalist Sushil Kumar could not make it to the function due to health problem.

Over 2,500 sportspersons were taking part in the meet which would be conducted in 24 events at different venues in the city. The star attraction of the meet 'half marathon' would commence from the Heritage town Srirangpatana to Mysore tomorrow.

A novel feature of this year's game meet would be the cross-country race for veterans in the men's category.

On the concluding day of the meet on October six, four locals powerlifter Vasudha, Thej Kumar and Girish Koushik (chess) and Poojashree Venkatesh (tennis), would be honoured along with Karnataka athletes, who represented the country in the Beijing games. Speaking on the occasion, Bindra exhorted all sportspersons to follow discipline and dedication to achieve the goal.

UNI BSP SIV ROY RKM GC1806