Ravi Kumar chosen for Ekalabya Award

International weightlifter Katula Ravi Kumar was today selected to receive the 17th Ekalabya Award for the year 2009. The award committee, comprising jury members from different walks of life were unanimous in selecting Ravi Kumar among nine shortlisted candidates for the prestigious award at a meeting Bhubaneswar. Ravi Kumar, who hails from Berhampur and serves in Indian Army, bagged three gold medals in 69kg senior category of the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship at Penang (Malaysia) in October last year. Earlier in November 2007, he won a silver in the 20th Asian Junior Weightlifting Championship at Jordan. In the domestic arena, Ravi Kumar secured gold in the 69kg category of the 44th Junior National Championship at Imphal in November 2007 and silver in the in the Senior National Championship at Bhubaneswar in December 2008. Instituted in the year 1993 by Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT), the charitable wing of IMFA Group, Ekalabya Award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and citation. Besides the main award, two runner-up awards, carrying cash prize of Rs 10,000 each are given every year. This year, chess WIM Kiran Manisha Mohanty and international athlete Amiya Kumar Mallick have been nominated for the runner-up awards for their impressive performance during the past two years. Earlier recipients Ekalabya Award include Rachita Mistry, Anuradha Biswal (both athletics); Dilip Tirkey, Lazrus Barla, Ignace Tirkey, Praboth Tirkey, William Xalxo, Gloria Dung Dung, Subhadra Pradhan (all hockey); Debasis Mohanty, Shiv Sundar Das, Sanjay Raul, Rashmi Ranjan Parida (all cricket); Pravasini Dwivedy, Mamata Jena (both rowing) and Padmini Rout (Chess).