Sumariwalla elected MAAA president, Sawant is general secretary

Pune, Mar 6 (UNI) Former Olympian and Arjun awardee Adille Sumariwalla of Mumbai City District and Pralhad Sawant of Pune District were unanimously elected president and general secretary respectively of the Maharashtra Amateur Athletic Association (MAAA) at its annual general body meeting here today.

Mr Sumariwalla replaces incumbent Shiv Sena MP Satish Pradhan, while Mr Sawant regained the post of general secretary after a lapse of nine years. Mr Sumariwalla had served the MAAA as its general secretary for nearly two decades.

Soon after his election as the MAAA president, Mr Sumariwalla said the 2010 Commonwealth Games will be the main focus and ''Go for gold'' will be the aim of the state association.

The Athletic Federation of India (AFI), incidentally, has allotted the prestigious Asian Grand Prix meet to be held on May 26 at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports City at Mahalunge-Balewadi near here.

As many as 20 affiliated units of the MAAA attended the AGM today and elected the office bearers for the new term of office from 2006 to 2010.

Mr Satyanarayan of Karnataka was the AFI observer and supervised the elections. Adv Pradeep Pardeshi and Ball Badminton Federation of India general secretary Pravin Bodke were the election officers.

Following is the new team of office-bearers elected for the new term 2006-2010: President: Mr Adille Sumariwalla (Mumbai City); Chairman: Mr R J Bute (Wardha); Vice Presidents: Mr Abhay Chhajed (Pune), Mr Srikant Joshi (MLA-Aur), Mr Uttam Thakur (Amravati), Mr S S Dhande MLA-Beed), Mr R B Patil (Kol), Mr Narayan Khadke (Jalgaon), Mr Dilip Jaiswal(Chandrapur); General Secretary: Mr Pralhad Sawant (Pune); Joint Secretaries: Mr Jeevan Miskin (Yavatmal), Mr Raju Pyati (Sol), Mr Rajesh Jadhav (Jalgaon), Mr Neelkanth Sankaye (Latur), Mr Ranjit Sinhrane (Sindudurg), Mr Prasad Pathak (Mumbai Suburban); Treasurer: Mr Rajaram Dinde (Aur); Executive Committee Members: Mr R S Shetty (Mumbai City), Mr Baptist D'Souza (Pune), Mrs Meera Gatwai (Nag), Mr Gopal Rajput (Buldhana), Mrs Kalpana Tendulkar (Sindhudurg), Mr Raju John (Yavatmal), Mr K S Shinde (Parbhani), Mr A M Pawar (Beed), Mr Dayanand Kamble (Aur), Mr Hemanth Sarnaik (Kol), Mr Sanjay Badole (Osmanabad).

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