46 sportspersons awarded in MP

Bhopal, Sep 11 (UNI) Cricketer Sayed Abbas Ali, swimmers Ramvaran Pal and K C Raikwar, powerlifter Madhuri Bhagwath and taekwondo exponent Renuka Verma were among 46 sportspersons from Madhya Pradesh presented with Vikram, Eklavya and Vishwamitra awards here today.

The awards comprising trophy and citation, instituted by the state government, for 2005 and 2006 were distributed by Governor Balram Jakhar and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Sports Minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia and Finance Minister Raghvaji, besides ace shooter Manavjit Singh Sandhu were also present.

Eklavya awards were given to 15 sportspersons, Vikram awards to 13 and Vishwamitra awards to 16, while cricket commentator Sushil Doshi and cricketer Hamid Ullah Khan were given Lifetime achievement award.

The Vikram awardees include: Ramanand Singh (boxing), Mohd Yasir Hasib Khan (canoeing), K C Raikwar(swimming), Amit Lahore (kho kho), Miss Farhat Bano (Judo), Miss Madhuri Bhagwat (power lifting), Prabhat Chand Jat Kanwar( wrestling), Ashwin Bhamodkar (kho kho), Renuka Varma(taekwondo), Sayed Abbas Ali (cricket), Paritosh Sharma(karate) Ramvaran Pal (swimming) and Gangaram Varma (canoeing).

Those presented with Eklavaya award include: Miss Faiza Khalidi (canoeing), Miss Nisha Khan(taekwondo), Jitendra Prajapati (boxer), Miss Pooja Chaturvedi(judo), Miss Pratha Kshirsagar( diving), Miss Prachi Bobde (basketball), Mukesh Pawar (kabaddi), Neeraj Singh (baseball), Miss Monika Namdeo (Wu Shu), Abhimanyu Singh (badminton), Indrajeet Singh (athletics), Ankit Pachouri (canoeing), Miss Ritu Bisht (basketball), Jitendra Varma (taekondo) and Mohit Pathak (boxing).

Mayank Thakur, Krishna Kumar Raikwar, Ankit Pachouri, Miss Preeti, Devendra Gupta (all canoeing), Krishna Singh Rathore (horse riding), Dilip Singh( taekwondo), Ashish Mehta (malkhamb) and Manoj Gupta (Wu Shu) were given Vishwamitra awards.

The Governor called upon the state government to extend liberal assistance for the promotion of sports. The Chief Minister announced setting up of a hockey academy for men at Bhopal and for women at Gwalior and shooting academy at Bhopal.

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