V. Baskaran, India’s Olympic hockey gold medal winning captain (Moscow 1980), was honoured with the lifetime achievement award at the GVSPL-TNSJA (Tamil Nadu Sports Journalists’ Association) awards function, here on Wednesday.
“I thank TNSJA for the honour. It is one of the best awards in the country in recognising excellence. I have been here before. But this year, I am on a different platform. I congratulate all the other award winners.” said Baskaran in his acceptance speech.
While Tamil Nadu cricketer Vijay Shankar was named the sportsman of the year, the sailing duo of Varsha Gautham and Aishwarya Nedunchezhiyan was bestowed with the sportswomen of the year honour.
The lifetime achievement award for a journalist went posthumously to Rayan Amal Raj, former sports in-charge, Indian Express. S. Dakshinamoorthy, who guided the Tamil Nadu volleyball team to the National Games gold recently was named coach of the year. The Tamil Nadu cricket team which finished runner-up in the Ranji Trophy was chosen as the team of the year.
Karthikeyan Murali and G.K. Monnisha (both chess) were named young achievers. The newly-instituted jury awards went to Vr. Aravindh Chithambaram (chess), Abhinav Mukund (cricket), Suket Srenivas (yoga), A. Amalraj and A. Sharath Kamal (table tennis) and S. Prabagaran (volleyball).
Former India cricketer Venkatesh Prasad, India’s first Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan and Tamil Nadu sports minister S. Sundararaj graced the occasion.
T.N. Raghu, president, TNSJA, delivered the welcome address and K. Keerthivasan, secretary, proposed the vote of thanks. Television host Sumanth C. Raman anchored the function.
List of other GVSPL-TNSJA awards:Scholarships winners (Rs. 30,000 each): S. Nandhini (athletics), G. Chandramouleeshwar (badminton), C. Lakshmi (chess), S.B. Keerthana (cricket), G.V. Hariharan (football), B. Mithlesh (shooting), P.M. Abishiktha (swimming), N. Vidya (table tennis), S. Prasanth and R. Angamuthu (volleyball).
