Pro Golf – Recognition
Aditi Ashok, who’s epic fourth place finish in Tokyo ignited interest in golf is to be felicitated by the Karnataka Govt with a special cash award as announced by the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports, which has already sent a proposal to the government for approval. This appeared in newspaper reports in Bangalore last week.
The government’s cash award terms prescribe ₹5 crore for an Olympic gold, ₹3 crore for silver and ₹2 crore for bronze. There are no written norms for a player which finishes fourth, but Sports Minister KC Narayana Gowda is likely to take a decision soon on this matter. We await news of the amount sanctioned.
New Delhi based pharmaceutical company, Mankind Pharma has announced a cash prize of ₹ 11 lacs each to 20 players who narrowly missed medals at Tokyo Olympics and Aditi is one of the recipients too. This mostly includes members of the women’s hockey team who lost a heartbreak bronze medal match by one goal.
Tata Motors, announced they would gift a Tata Altroz, its latest premium hatchback to the 4th place finishers from Tokyo as well.
We at India Golf Weekly feel that Aditi deserves a lot more considering that she and her family have funded her foreign training and international travel for the past decade and more, which have got her to this point of bringing laurels to Indian golf.
Several other Indian athletes, including Javelin gold medallist Neeraj Chopra have received Rs 7 crore in financial support for his training in Germany for the past few years, as per media reports.