Time for UP athletes to pocket huge money
All nine sportspersons from Uttar Pradesh stand a chance to win the biggest-ever purse in the state’s sports history, if they make a podium finish at the Rio Olympics, which kicked off in Brazil on Friday.
The gold medal winner in an individual event at Rio would get Rs 6 crore while silver and bronze medallists would be richer by Rs 4 crore and Rs 2 crore, respectively. This is what the Akhilesh Yadavled state government has to offer to the state’s sportspersons.
Earlier, the prize money for such winners was Rs 1 crore, Rs 75 lakh and Rs 50 lakh respectively. The government had raised this money even in 2014-15 with an intention to encourage sportspersons to win medals at sports’ biggest carnival.
In terms of prize money to sportspersons, Haryana still leads the table in India as it gives Rs 6 crore, Rs 4 crore and Rs 2.5 crore to gold, silver and bronze medallists. The bracket in Gujarat is Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 2 crore, whereas in Punjab, the top purse for the medallists is Rs 2.25 crore, Rs 1.01 crore and Rs 51 lakh.
“Certainly, the big money would encourage our sport persons at Rio to make extra efforts to win medals,” director, sports, RP Singh said on Friday. “It is the biggestever offer to them in the history and they should win this money by bringing laurels both for country as well as the state.”
The nine sports persons from Uttar Pradesh at Rio now include ace shooters Jitu Rai and Meraj Ahmad Khan, wrestler Narsingh Pancham Yadav, athletes Sudha Singh and Seema Punia, hockey players Danish Mujtaba, Vandana Katariya, Preeti Dubey and shuttler Manu Attri.
Even if they fail to make podium finish in the 17-day Olympics, these sports persons will get Rs 10 lakh each as participation money for the first time. In 2012 London Olympics, none of the athletes from state were given any award for participation.
For the first time, the government had given Rs 5 lakh each to all the participants, who could even win a medal at the 2014 Asian and Commonwealth Games.
Cash awards for team games’ winners have also been increased amazingly for the Rio Games. Now, the gold, silver and bronze medallists would be getting Rs 3 crore, Rs 2 crore and Rs 1 crore. “That’s a big money and would guide our sports persons win medals in Rio,” former Indian hockey captain Rajneesh Mishra said.