State Govts should give award to Olympic medalists: GFI official

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Stressing the need for financial assistance, rewards and awards for attracting gymnasts, Gymnastic Federation of India (GFI) general secretary Kaushik Bidiwala today hinted that each state government should declare awards to those who win medals in Olympics. “As part of promoting and attracting gymnasts,the Gujarat Government has already announced Rs five crore to those who come back with a gold in the Olympics and each state government should follow the model of Gujarat to attract more gymnasts, as India has very talented gymnasts across the country,’ he said. Expressing the confidence that India have enough talents to win gold medals in the 2020 Olympics, to be held in Japan, Mr Bidiwala said, “We have chalked out a vision 2020 in this regard and presented the idea before the Union Ministry of sports for their approval.” To shape the talent to fight the challenges of Chinese and Russian gymnasts, the GFI had envisaged lot of ideas on how to tap the potential of Indian gymnasts and in order to achieve the goal, the GFI was proposing to set up a national academy in this regard, he said. (AGENCIES)