The Meghalaya government honoured and rewarded hundreds of athletes who have been successful at recent regional, national and international events at a programme held here today.
Chief among them were the five athletes who won medals for Meghalaya at the National Games in Uttarakhand, which concluded earlier this month. They each received cheques of between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh based on the medal they won.
Shillong Lajong FC, the state’s only club playing in the national I-League at the moment, also received Rs 1 crore as financial support. Other recipients included successful martial artists, Subroto Cup football teams and the boys’ football team that won the National School Games title in December.
The success at the National Games was unprecedented and unexpected given Meghalaya disappointing results in past editions. The five who won were Vikash Rana (gold), Elizabath Vincent (silver), Indra Sharma (silver), Pynshngain Kurbah (bronze) and Kiran Devi and H Anandhi (bronze). All the medals came in kayaking, canoeing or rowing, sports that Meghalaya has never had such success in before.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said, “While I specially congratulate Vikash, Elizabeth, Indra, Kiran, Anandhi and Pynshngain who have won medals, I also congratulate all the athletes who had worked hard to be a part of the state contingent and have represented our state in various sports disciplines.”
Speaking on preparations for the 39th National Games, which will be hosted by Meghalaya in 2027, he said, “In less than 24 months from now Meghalaya will be hosting the National Games and there are multiple aspects associated with this mega event.”
While plenty of effort is being put in to ensure that the infrastructure required is built, Meghalaya is also taking measures to try and boost the state’s medals tally..
“One of the important things that we realised is the need to have coaches in various disciplines to give professional guidance and training for our athletes and we will support the different sports associations to provide special training programmes for our top 200-300 athletes who will be representing our state in the 39th National Games,” the CM said.
He also informed that the government is looking at supporting athletes who are in the police force and other state government departments by allowing them to focus on training for the Games instead of their day-to-day government jobs. Sangma also spoke about the
Meghalaya Outstanding Sportspersons Direct Appointment Policy, which was approved earlier in the day by the cabinet. Under this policy, the state government will provide jobs to medallists from the National, South Asian, Olympic and Commonwealth Games, etc.
