SJAN-NMC AWARDS GIVEN AWAY

Aim Higher: Manohar tells city players

Appeals to form independent organisation to help city's sportspersons

SJAN-NMC ANNUAL AWARDS GIVEN AWAY

NAGPUR, July 13, 2008
“NAGPUR was never short of sporting talent. But the level of satisfaction in our sportspersons is very low. This mentality is stopping them from attaining higher levels in sports,” averred Adv Shashank Manohar, President-elect of the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI).Manohar was addressing the packed audience at the Sports Journalists’ Association of Nagpur and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (SJAN-NMC) Annual Awards function at Tilak Patrakar Bhavan auditorium. Sharing the dais with him were Mayor Maya Iwnate, Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta, Deputy Mayor Kishor Kumeria, Standing Committee Chairman Krishna Khopde, Leader of Ruling Party in NMC Anil Sole, Director of Centre Point School Arundev Upadhyaya, SJAN President Dr Ram Thakur and SJAN Secretary Rahul Dixit. Manohar exhorted youngsters to take sports as a profession like engineering or medical. “It has become a profession and one needs to work very hard to be successful in any profession,” he said.

The Vidarbha Cricket Association president said that only infrastructure and facilities cannot make good players. “There should be a desire to excel among the players. There should be a system groom them from the school level,” he said.

Manohar also floated the idea of forming an organisation of sportslovers to help sportspersons of the city. “People who love sports should come together and form a body. Raising money for such noble effort is never difficult. The fund should be utilised to develop sportsperson from all disciplines. And soon we would also have many players of international fame,” Manohar said.

Speaking on the occasion Aseem Gupta expressed happiness to see a sports journalists body and municipal corporation coming together to honour sporting talent of the city. He urged people to give sports due importance in life.Dr Arundev Upadhyaya appealed to the well-to-do schools to come together and provide a helping hand to sportspersons from financially weak schools.

Mayor Maya Iwanate said that the corpration was committed to development of sports in the city. “We have already earmarked a large chunk for sports in our annual budget,” she said.

Krishna Khopde, Kumeria and Sole also spoke on the occasion.

TALENT HONOURED

Later, the guests presented the awards to various winners. The highlight of the ceremony was the powerpoint presentation showing the deeds of all award winners on a large screen. The function was shown live by local channel UCN.Bhavan’s BP Vidya Mandir, Civil Lines was awarded the Centre Point School Trophy and a cash prize of Rs 3000 for the Best School working for promotion of sports. School Principal Beena Gokhale accepted the award.

The SJAN Trophy and cash prize of Rs 3000 for Best College working for promotion of sports went to Hislop College. Principal Deepti Christian and Sports HoD Kalpana Jadhav accepted the award.

Vinod Trivedi was presented the special award for being the best organiser. The award contained SJAN Trophy and Rs 3,000.

Best Junior Sportswoman award went to ace table tennis player Mallika Bhandarkar. Her mother, Anjali, accepted the Baidyanath Trophy and Rs 3000.

Junior India hockey player Ather Mirza got the Best Junior Sportsman award. He was presented WCL Trophy and Rs 3000.Noted swimmer Prajakta Khangan was awarded the Mayor’s Trophy and Rs 5000 for being the Best Senior Sportswoman.

The Mayor’s Trophy and a cash for Rs 5000 for being the Best Senior Sportsman was awarded to Vidarbha Ranji Trophy captain Preetam Gandhe.

The programme began with the lighting of traditional lamp. The guests were welcomed by Dr Ram Thakur, Rahul Dixit, Paritosh Pramanik, Uday Rangnath, Kishor Bagde and Aditi Deodhar.Dixit made the introductory remarks while SJAN Vice-President Naresh Shelke conducted the programme. Treasurer Anupam Soni proposed a vote of thanks.

NMC INSTUTES MAYOR'S 'KRIDA RATNA' AWARD

Fulfilling a long-standing need of the sporting fraternity of the city, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) announced institution of Mayor's 'Krida Ratna' award from the next season. Mayor Maya Iwnate made this announcement during the SJAN-NMC award function. She that the winner would get a Mayor's Trophy, details of which would come out soon

Gandhe, Prajakta, Mirza,Mallika, Trivedi win honours

Gandhe, Prajakta, Mirza, Mallika, Trivedi win honours
Hislop, Bhavan’s to get awards
NAGPUR, July 13, 2008
Vidarbha Ranji captain Preetam Gandhe, noted swimmer Prajakta Khangan, upcoming hockey player Ather Mirza, international table tennis player Mallika Bhandarkar and noted sports organiser Vinod Kumar Trivedi were selected for the annual awards of Sports Journalists’ Association of Nagpur (SJAN) and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).The awards will be conferred on July 13 at Tilak Patrakar Bhavan auditorium at 10.30 am. Adv Shashank Manohar, President-elect, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be the chief guest.Addressing mediapersons SJAN secretary Rahul Dixit said that Civil Lines branch of Bhavan’s Bhagwandas Purohit Vidya Mandir has been selected as best school working for promotion of sports while Hislop College has been selected as best college in the same category.The best senior sportsman’s award will be conferred on Preetam Gandhe. Under his leadership Vidarbha reached the semi-finals of the Ranji One-Dayers last season for the first time. For last two years Gandhe has been amongst the top five wicket-takers in Plate group. The veteran off-spinner has so far scalped 330 wickets in 96 first class matches. He will get Mayor’s Trophy and Rs 5,000 cash.Swimmer Prajakta Khangan will be given the best senior sportswoman’s award. Prajakta participated in World University Games held at Bangkok last year. She is only the third player of the Nagpur University who participated in any world meet. She also clinched two gold medals in Inter-University Swimming Championships in 2006-07 which is a first in Nagpur University’s history. She will be honoured with Mayor's Trophy and Rs 5,000 cash.The best junior sportsman’s award will go to upcoming hockey player Ather Mirza. Ather was the member of Indian team that finished runners-up in Four-Nation Junior Hockey Tournament held at Singapore. He also scored a goal in the final against Australia. Ather is the only player from Vidarbha to be selected in the Indian hockey team. He also represented Maratha Warriors in the Premier Hockey League (PHL). He will get WCL Trophy and cash prize of Rs 3,000.International-fame table tennis player Mallika Bhandarkar has been chosen for the best junior sportswoman’s award. Mallika has been selected in Indian team for Asian Children’s Table Tennis Tournament under way in Russia. A student of Modern School, Mallika is displaying very consistent performance at national and international level for last several years. Last year she represented India in four tournaments and also bagged medals. Mallika will be awarded Baidyanath Trophy and cash prize of Rs 3,000.The special award for best organiser will go to noted sports organiser Vinod Kumar Trivedi. The veteran has a lion’s share in development of sports in the city. He is related with various sports organisations including bridge, chess, hockey etc. for last 40 years. He will get SJAN Trophy and Rs 3,000 cash.Bhavan’s Bhagwandas Purohit Vidya Mandir, Civil Lines has been selected as best school promoting sporting activities. The school bagged as many as 13 titles in various tournaments. Four of its players also clinched gold medals in nationals. The school also showed outstanding performance in CBSE sports events. It will get a trophy donated by Centre Point School and cash prize of Rs 3,000.A new award has been instituted from this year for the best college promoting sporting activities. The first recipient of the award will be Hislop College. Hislop has maintained its sporting tradition for several years and bagged as many as 25 titles last year. It is the only college which has a sports council. The management also offers 50 per cent concession in fees to sportspersons participating in the nationals and 25 per cent to those who participate in the state-level tournaments.The annual awards function will be presided over by Maya Iwnate, Mayor. Aseem Gupta, Municipal Commissioner; Kishor Kumeria, Deputy Mayor; Krishna Khopde, NMC Standing Committee Chairman; Arundev Upadhyaya, Director of Centre Point School; Prof. Anil Sole, ruling party leader in NMC; Praful Gudadhe-Patil, leader of the opposition; Suresh Sharma, joint MD of Baidyanath Ayurved Limited; DC Garg, CMD of Western Coalfields Limited and others will also grace the function.

SJAN awards funciton on July 13 at Patrakar Bhawan, Nagpur.