CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has presented Rs 1.45 crore incentive to five sportspersons from Tamil Nadu, including a differently-abled woman who had won honours in international contests.
The quartet - C Ajith Kumar, R Naveeen, L Samaya Sri and L Priyadarshini - had come up with flying colours at the World School Athletics Championship in Turkey, while the diffabled, K Jenita Anto had won the International Chess tourney for the diffabled at Serbia last month.
When the four students were camping in Trabzon for the events, there was an unsuccessful military coup in Turkey. Despite the difficult situation prevailing there, the students had won honours, an official release here said.
“My warmest greetings to all of you. I wish you many more success. I hope you will win more medals and add glory to the country and to our State. We are all very proud of you”, the Chief Minister said greeting the sportspersons.
Jayalalithaa gave a cheque for Rs 55 lakh to Ajith Kumar for winning three medals in the competition including gold in medley relay.
R Naveen received a cheque for Rs 25 lakh for winning gold in medley relay while L Samaya Sri and S Priyadarshini were given Rs 20 lakh each for winning silver in Women’s medley relay and Triple Jump, respectively. Ajit Kumar and Priyadarshini hail from Chennai while Samaya Sri is a resident of Coimbatore and Naveen is from Madurai.
She gave cheque for Rs 25 lakh to Jenita Anto of Tiruchy who had won the chess tourney for the fourth time.