Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Secretary CK Valson while felicitating the senior elite players at the ongoing 53rd National Open Athletics Championships appreciated Jharkhand Athletics Association’s (JAA) concept of honouring Indian athletes who have earned their names at the national and international athletics meets.
“I hope that other State sports associations too come up with such ideas. It boosts the morale of players,” said Valson. As many as seven players namely Namita Kabat, Deepmala Devi, Gurmeet Singh, Ranjith Maheshwary, Hari Shankar Roy, SK Murtuza and Rati Ram Saini out of the 25 listed elite players was felicitated here.
Indian Athletics chief coach Bahadur Singh, State Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs director Ashok Kumar, JAA chairman KK Soan and President Madhukant Pathak together motivated the noted players. Notably, the whole idea to arranging such felicitation function which is the first of its kind in India was an idea of JAA chairman Soan. In his speech to the elite players Soan said, “With this championships, we look forward of conducting many other national tournaments so that sports is further more developed.”
Sunday, being the second day of this meet was spoiled for few minutes due to heavy rain during the finals of long Jump and Shot-put. The finals of 11 athletics events are scheduled for Monday, including Men and Women Pole Vault.