THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Cabinet has okayed cash awards of Rs10 lakh each for individual gold medal winners from the state in the recently concluded Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar.
The gold-winning members of team events will get `5 lakh each, Sports Minister A C Moideen said here on Wednesday.
Individual silver winners will get Rs 7 lakh each, while athletes who won silver in team events will get Rs 3.5 lakh each. Individual bronze medal winners will be presented with `5 lakh each and medal winners in the team events, Rs 2.5 lakh each, Moideen said. Malayali athletes had bagged medals, including two individual gold medals, in 13 events.
Individual gold winners include Mohammed Anas who won gold in the 400 metres and P U Chitra who won in the 1,500 metres. The government is planning a comprehensive overhaul of the cash awards given for all sports events. Wednesday’s decision was specially taken in view of the performances in the Asian Athletics Championships. The Cabinet will soon review the cash awards, he said. “The 2007 rates are still in vogue and they are low with gold winners getting only `2 lakh, silver winners `1.5 lakh and bronze, `1 lakh,” Moideen said.