On the National Sports Day on Monday, the Sports and Youth Services Department felicitated six Olympians of the State and conferred the Biju Patnaik Sports Award at the Jaydeb Bhawan here.
Sprinter Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, women hockey players Deep Grece Ekka, lilima Minz, Sunita lakra and Namita Toppo, who had participated in the Rio Olympics, received cash award of `5 lakhs each.
Nagpuri Ramesh and Tarun Kumar Saha, the coaches of Dutee and Srabani, respectively, got `1 lakh cash award each. As Ramesh was not present, Dutee received the award for him. The department also felicitated first national swimming medal winner Pratyasha Ray, she bagged three gold medals in the national meet received `1,70 lakhs as cash incentives.
International women athlete Purnima Hemram got the Biju Patnaik Sports Award in the outstanding player of the year category which carries trophy and cash award of `2 lakhs. In the newly introduced category of best contribution to promotion of sports and games, Odisha Cricket Association secretary Asirbad Behera received the award and got trophy along with cash award of Rs 50,000.
Women football coach Chitrasen Patra and weightlifting coach P Dharma Rao shared the excellent coach award, which carries trophy along with cash award of 1 lakhs and Tanmay Das received best sports Journalists award for the year 2015.
Abinash Mishra got the Biju Patnaik Bravery Award and Social workers Naresh Chandra Baliarsing Mohapatra, Bikram Keshori Nayak, Debasis Sahu, Mahendra Kumar Nayak and Dhynachand Panda were received state awards for their contribution for the welfare of the society.