"We have talent, if encouraged many can win individual medals"Sushil

Bangalore, Sep 11 (UNI) Olympian Sushil Kumar today said that the country has lot of talent only lacking is encouragement.

"There is lot of talent in the country, if encouraged properly many more individual medals can be won", the bronze medal winner in (Wrestling) Beijing Olympics told newsmen here.

For Bronze medalist in the Beijing Olympics (Boxing) Vijender Singh Bangalore is a very special city as he won his major medal in the Senior Nationals Boxing in 2003. "Bangalore is a very special for me as it is here I won major title that changed my life", he added.

Both the Olympians were felicitated by the Karnataka Olympic Association on the occasion of KOA Annual Award distribution function in which 22 sports persons, including Sports Journalist and Sports Photographer were presented Awards.

The duo were presented with Cheque of Rs two lakhs each.

Earlier, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa extended Dasara Invitation to Sushil and Vijendra who called on him at Vidhana Soudha, the State Secretariat.

The Karnataka Government has announced cash prizes to ace Shooter Abhinav Birender (Rs 10 lakhs) for winning Gold and Rs Five lakhs to Sushil and Vijendra for winning bronze medals. The Awards would be distributed during Dasara festivities.

The award, carrying Rs 10,000 cash and citation were presented to G M Aishwarya (athletics), Aditya R Prakash (badminton), Sonam Deep Kaur (baskeball), Lakkappa B Kurani (cycling), N Geetha (fencing), B Prakash (football), V S Vinaya, G M Hari Prasad, T S Kaveramma (Hockey), J Harish (kabaddi), C R Santhosh (kho-kho), M P Shashikiran (rifle shooting), V Thejaswini, N A Sandeep (both swimming), B Thejaswini (taekwondo), Suma M Hegde (volleyball), M Chandrappa Kurani (cycling coach), H K Vishwanath (sports journalist), Philip Nathan Samson Victor (press photographer), Kenneth Powell (former Olympian-athletics), Ahmed Khan (ex-Olympian-football) and U Vimal Kumar(former Olympian-badminton).

UNI MSP TS2114