UP government felicitates Tokyo Olympics medal winners

It was a grand show of enthusiasm at the Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee- Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Thursday.The occasion was  felicitation of the Tokyo Olympics medal winners and participants of Uttar Pradesh.Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the presence of Governor Anandi Ben Patel and several ministers felicitated  them with cash prizes.Over filled  Ekana stadium was reverberated  with claps and zeal when cash prize of rupees 2 crore was given to the gold medal winner Neeraj Copara for javelin throw. Rupees 1.50 crore was given  to the silver medalist Ravi Dahiya. Bajrang Punia, Lovlina Borgohain and  PV Sindhu were given rupees 1 crore for  bronze medals. Whole  Indian men’s hockey team was also prized with rupees one crore each member.

Members of the women's hockey team, who performed exceptionally well but finished fourth after reaching their maiden semi-final at the Olympics, were given Rs 50 lakh each and so was golfer, Aditi Ashok, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal. All 10 players from UP who participated in the Olympics were given an additional Rs 25 lakh. CM Adityanath lauded India's best-ever show at an Olympic event and praised the athletes for delivering their best for the country despite the pandemic. "On behalf of all of you, I would congratulate all the athletes who represented the nation at Tokyo 2020. All these athletes gave their best performance for the country despite the covid pandemic. It shows that every athlete plays for the entire and they do not see anything else apart from country," Adityanath said during the event.

The UP government had earlier announced that athletes from the state who win a gold medal at the Olympics in individual events would be given Rs 6 crore, silver medalists will get 4 crore while bronze medalist from the state will be given 2 crore. In team events, the UP government would give 3 crore for gold medals, 2 crore for silver medals and 1 crore for bronze medals. Adityanath stressed that the UP government was determined to promote sports in the state as a result of which 31 stadiums have already been built in the state. He also announced that a Sports University will be built in Meerut which will be named after legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand.