BHUBANESWAR 05-Mar-2011 353
The delay in the conferemnt of the Biju Patnaik Sports Award finally ended after three years when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik presented the four categories of awards, the highest in the state, in a function at Jayadev Bhawan here today.
Former international woman high jumper Usharani Mishra (Lesslie), long jumper Hemant Kumar Patel and veteran marathon runner Dr Bibekananda Tripathy were honoured with the Biju Patnaik Award for Life-time Achievement for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. The award carried a cheque of Rs 1.5 lakhs, a scroll and a statuette.
The Sportsperson of the Year Award were conferred on chess WGM Padmini Rout (2007), woman sprinter Srabani Nanda (2008) and former India hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey (2009). The awardees received a cheque of Rs 1 lakh each besides the citation and statuette. In the absence of Nanda, who is currently undergoing a training stint in Australia, her mother received the award.
The award for Outstanding Coach went to Chitta Ranjan Mohapatra (athletics, 2007), Nila Madhab Deo (athletics, 2008)and Kalu Charan Choudhury (hockey, 2009). This award carried a cheque of Rs 50,000 each along with citation and statuette.
