CHENNAI: India’s first chess International Master Manuel Aaron, and 1975 hockey World Cup winner VJ Philips were honoured with Lifetime Achievement awards at the Arise Steel-TNSJA (Tamil Nadu Sports Journalists’ Association) awards function, here on Sunday. “I can proudly say that TNSJA is the only organisation to have properly recognised me for my achievement, that too, after 42 years,” said Philips in his acceptance speech.
Tamil Nadu cricketer Dinesh Karthik and athlete G Lakshmanan, who achieved a stunning distance double at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar last month, were named the ‘Players of the Year’. “This is a big motivation. I believe I’m a hard-worker. I still have to improve a lot. My aim is to compete in the Olympics,” said Lakshmanan.
The Lifetime Achievement award for Journalists was given posthumously to Nirmal Shekar, former sports editor of ‘The Hindu’. R Mohan, resident editor of ‘Deccan Chronicle’, was the other recipient of this award. S Loganathan, who coached Lakshmanan to glory, was named ‘Coach of the Year’.
The Tamil Nadu limited-over cricket team which won the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Deodhar Trophy was the ‘Team of the Year’. S. Nandakumar (football) and S Selena Deepthi (table tennis) were named ‘Young Achievers’. BCCI chairman of selectors MSK Prasad graced the occasion.