Praising Chhattisgarh players for their impressive performance in the inaugural Khelo India Tribal Games, Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai announced cash prizes for all the medallists and even promised a financial windfall for anyone making it to the Olympics.
Chhattisgarh finished ninth on the medals tally with 3 gold, 10 silver and 6 bronze medals. Karnataka were crowned the overall champions, claiming 23 gold along with 8 silver and 7 bronze. Odisha finished second with 21 gold, 15 silver and 21 bronze medals. Odisha were the only contingent to cross a half century of medals, finishing with 57 medals. Jharkhand were third with 16 gold, 8 silver and 11 bronze.
"The individual gold medallists will receive a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh each, Rs 1.5
lakh for silver and Rs 1 lakh for bronze. The medallists in the team championships will get Rs 1 lakh, Rs 75000 and Rs 50000 for gold, silver and bronze respectively," the Chief Minister announced at the colourful closing ceremony of KITG at the Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay auditorium on Friday.
Siddharth Nagesh (men's shot put), Nikita (weightlifting) and the women's football team clinched the gold medal for the hosts with their men's football team signing off the campaign with a silver after losing the final 0-1 against West Bengal on Friday.
Thirty States and Union Territories participated in the inaugural edition of the Khelo India Tribal Games that witnessed close to 3800 participants compete in nine sports disciplines. A whopping 106 gold medals were on offer across archery, athletics, football, hockey, swimming, weightlifting and wrestling while traditional sports like mallakhamb and kabaddi were demonstration sports.
Deputy Chief Minister Arun Sao, who also holds the Sports Ministry portfolio, lauded Sports Authority of India and the state sports department for the successful conduct of the Games and insisted that the next edition would be held on a much bigger scale.
"This is the first time that Games of this stature were held in Chhattisgarh and I must congratulate SAI, sports department and everyone associated in conducting these Games for their hard work and commitment for making these Games a grand success. I also promise that the next edition of the Games will be organised on a much bigger scale and Chhattisgarh will set a benchmark for everyone to follow," he added.
The 10-day sporting extravaganza was held across three cities in Chhattisgarh and overall champions Karnataka led the medals tally from the opening day as they dominated the swimming events, winning 15 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals. They added 5 gold in athletics and three tin wrestling to ensure that neither Odisha nor Jharkhand could catch up with them.
