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In the Government of India sports awards for 2001, rising chess star
Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna of Andhra Pradesh led the rostrum with Rs 3,90,000, while World
Junior Chess Champion Koneru Humpy received Rs 3,00,000. Both the
Andhra juniors had a great run last year, when Harikrishna became
India's youngest Grandmaster with stellar performances in Chess
Olympiad Istanbul and Wijk Aan Zee "B" events, while Koneru
Humpy cornered the glory winning the World Junior title at Athens. Among the awards for Coaches the chess
men were Humpy's father Koneru Ashok (Rs. 1,90,000) and Pravin Thipsay
(Rs. 1,00,000). In a short speech before giving away the awards, the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Ms. Uma Bharti
said there would be a two to three-fold increase in the amount of money given in the various
categories for the next year.
Making this announcement
before presenting the awards for the year 2001, the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Ms. Uma Bharti, exhorted the galaxy of sportspersons and coaches to strive even harder to bring glory to the nation.
"Some of you will be taking part in Commonwealth Games and Asian Games this year. I appeal to all of you give it everything you have. I assure you bigger incentives from next year,'' stated the Minister, whose abilities to charm any gathering were in no way hampered by the ankle-ligament rupture she was suffering from.
Ms. Bharti later presented awards to those present from the list of 153 sportspersons and 58
coaches, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. This year a total sum of Rupees
1,99,00,000 were disbursed.
Woman boxer C Merykom Hmangte received the maximum of Rs. 9,00,000 for winning the light-fly silver medal in the World
Championship in December last. Women boxing Coach Anup Kumar walked away with the single-biggest cheque of Rs. 10,00,000. Though
some of the well-known faces, from boxing to sailing, were present at the ceremony,
only 131 of the 153 awardees showed up at the hall.
List of Awardees
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P Harikrishna (Rs. 390000)
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K. Humpy (Rs. 3,00,000)
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D. Minu (posthumously) (Rs. 25,000)
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Dhyani B. Dave (Rs. 20,000)
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Abhijeet Gupta (Rs. 20,000)
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G. Rohit (Rs. 15,000)
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Saheli Nath (Rs. 25,000)
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D. Harika (Rs. 60,000)
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Rajadarshini (Rs. 15,000)
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Deepan Chakkravarthy (Rs. 15,000)
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Kruttika Nadig (Rs. 20,000)
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M. Priyadarshini (Rs. 15,000)
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K.
Ratnakaran (Rs. 30,000)
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M. Kasturi (Rs. 50,000)
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S. Meenakshi (Rs. 90,000)
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Y. Sandeep (Rs. 25,000)
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S. Vijayalakshmi (Rs. 1,00,000)
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Nisha Mohota (Rs. 75,000)
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Tania Sachdev (Rs. 70,000)
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Bhagyashree
Thipsay (Rs. 1,00,000)
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Saheli Dhar-Barua (Rs. 75,000)
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S. Kidambi (Rs. 50,000)
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Sriram Jha (Rs. 50,000)
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Surya Sekhar Ganguly (Rs. 75,000)
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