Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], August 18 (ANI): Punjab players brought laurels for the state after performing exceptionally well at the recently concluded Paris Olympics 2024.
India ended its campaign at the Paris Olympics with six medals including five bronze and a silver.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Sunday felicitated the players from the state who won medals or participated in the marquee event.
Most of the athletes present at the felicitation ceremony were from Hockey. A total of eight players from Amritsar and Jalandhar won bronze medals.
These players included Harmanpreet Singh, Manpreet Singh, Samsher Singh, Gurjant Singh, Germanpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Mandeep Singh, and Sukhjeet Singh. Each of the players received an amount of Rs 1 crore at the ceremony.
Apart from this, shooting players like Sifat Kaur Samra, Anjum Mudgil, Vijayveer Singh Sidhu, Arjun Singh Cheema, Arjun Babuta, and Rajeshwari Kumari were also given a cash prize.
They were given a total of Rs 15 lakh. Athletics and golf players were also felicitated, including Tejinderpal Singh Toor, Akshdeep Singh, and Gaganjeet Bhullar.
The players who were honoured said that they appreciate this move of the Punjab government.
Speaking to ANI, Mandeep Singh said, “Such honour will boost the morale of the upcoming players. The inclination of the youth towards sports has increased in Punjab and the reason for this is the policies made for sports by the Punjab government and the central government.”
The China Hockey Championship is going to start in the coming days. Our morale is high due to the victory in the Olympics and we will perform even better.
During the ceremony, the Chief Minister praised the hard work and dedication of the players and called them the pride of the state. He said that these players are a source of inspiration for the youth and the state government will help them in every possible way.
In total, the Punjab government honoured the players who participated in the Olympics with an amount of Rs 9 crore 35 lakh.
Manu Bhaker opened India’s medal tally in the Olympics after she secured third place in the women’s individual 10m Air pistol event, becoming the first-ever woman shooter to win an Olympic medal for India. Following that, Sarabjot Singh and Bhaker won the bronze medal in the 10m air pistol (mixed team) event, which was India’s first-ever shooting team medal.
In her final event, she narrowly missed out on the historic grand treble and finished fourth in the women’s 25m pistol shooting event. She missed out on the opportunity to become the first Indian to win three medals at the Olympics.
Bhaker is the first athlete from the Indian contingent after independence to get two medals in a single edition of the Paris Olympics.
Bhaker also joined an elite group of athletes to have multiple individual medals at the Olympics: PV Sindhu (badminton silver at Rio 2016 and bronze medal at Tokyo 2020) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics).
Led by Harmanpreet Singh, the Indian men’s hockey team won back-to-back bronze medals for the first time in 52 years at the Olympics following their 2-1 triumph over Spain. (ANI)
