The team Jharkhand seemed to shine in Gold from the start to finish as they bagged a total of 37 medals in the Sub-Junior, Senior and Junior category on the closing day of the 7th Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Krida Mahotsav (boys and girls) at the Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Munda Mega Sports Complex in Khelgaon.
The team won a total of eight gold, four silver and eight bronze medals in the total matches played today while they clinched three gold, three silver and three bronze in athletics.
The largest National flag that is all set to be hoisted at the Pahari Mandir this New Year was brought to the stadium and it spread a patriotic fervour amongst the athletes, guests and organizers here.
Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Energy and Coal assured the athletes that there would be job provisions for all National-level athletes in any of the coal companies in India. “The job provisions will not only be open for tribal people but to any athlete who wins laurels on a National-level. We would want to see more young players coming ahead and making our states and nation proud,” said Goyal.
Jharkhand emerged as the champions in Archery in the Junior and Sub-Junior boys and girls both with bagging seven gold medals even on the third day while Kerala won the first position in Athletics with five medals in total today in 200 and 400-metre race of Sub-Junior and Junior category. Jharkhand’s Jayeshree Gagrai became the overall winner with gold medals in Junior and Sub-Junior category in Archery while Gunaram Purty was declared the overall winner in the 30 and 40-metre Junior category of archery.
Meanwhile, Maharshtra emerged out to be the overall winner in Kho-Kho matches in the sports festival at the Junior and Sub-Junior category.
Notably, Mukesh Solanki, a physically-handicapped young man from the Bhilal community of Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh had taken part in the Senior Men category in archery received a huge round of applause. Solanki is a former student of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram had participated in the sports mega festival here as a qualifying candidate and was encouraged to play at the National-level by Mukund Dravid, Regional Sports Head from Madhya Pradesh.
The Vanvasi Krida Mahotsav came to a colourful end with the cultural programme organized by the various teams and the prize distribution.