Bhubaneswar, Oct 9: As the recipient of the 24th Ekalabya Award founded by Odisha-based Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT), a wing of IMFA group, has chosen the Olympian and Sprinter Srabani Nanda. By showcasing her splendid performance in both national and international levels, Srabani has achieved gold medal in 200m, silver in 100m and 4×100, relay in 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati, 2016. Besides that, in Asian Grand Prix Athletics in Thailand, 2015 she also achieved the bronze medal in 100m and 4x100m relay. Deep Grace Ekka and Dipsan Tirkey will also be awarded with citation awards for their contribution in Hockey.
The main aim of Ekalabya award is to inspire young sports persons so that they can perform in both national and international levesl, Baijayant Panda, MP of Kendrapara and IMPaCT’s trustee said. Ekalabya award which has being given to the sports persons for their best performance in the preceding two years, consists of RS 5, 00,000 as cash prize and citation award awardees are felicitated with Rs. 50,000 as cash prize each.
It may be noted that, in 2015 the Ekalabya Award was felicitated to Dutee Chand.
Former Indian Hockey captain Dillip Tirkey, Probodh Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey, William Xalxo, athlete Anuradha Biswal, chess player Padmini Rout, Kiran Manisha Mohanty, Debashis Das, international cricketer Debashish Mohanty, Shib Sundar Das, , and shooter Shreyanka Sarangi has been awarded with this prestigious Ekalabya award in the past years.
