Heptathlete Purnima Hembram was awarded with the prestigious Ekalabya Puraskar for the year 2014.
The Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT) conferred the award at a function held here on Friday evening. Gold medals in the women heptathlon event at the 15th Asian Junior Athletics Championship-2012 held in Sri lanka and a silver medal in the heptathlon event at the 53rd National Open Athletics Championship-2013 held in Ranchi were some of the credits to Hembram. The athlete received a cash award of Rs2 lakh, a citation and a memento.
Besides Hembram, women cricketer Rasanara Parbin and rower Manjula Xess were also felicitated with citations and cash prize of Rs50,000 each. Renowned Indian cricketer Ajay Jadeja and Indian Premier league (IPl) chairman and Rajya Sabha MP Ranjib Biswal and IMPaCT trustee and lok Sabha member Baijayant Panda attended the function. Notably, the Ekalabya Award, initiated by IMPaCT in 1993, has come a long way to be recognised as the most prestigious sports award of Odisha drawing parallels with many national awards.