Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar presented Olympic medallists P.V. Sindhu and Sakshi Malik, gymnast Dipa Karmakar and badminton coach Pullela Gopichand BMW cars for their achievements at the Rio Olympics on Saturday. Tendulkar, who was the Indian contingent’s goodwill ambassador at the August 5-21 multisport event in Brazil, handed over the keys to the players at a function in Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy. Morover, grappler Sakshi bagged a bronze in women’s freestyle 58kg class and opened India’s winning account at Rio Olympics 2016. Dipa Karmakar finished fourth in gymnastics vaults final.
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Goel was trolled on social media for constantly trying to take pictures with athletes and was also criticised for getting Dipa Karmakar’s name wrong.
Sports Minister Vijay Goel raised many eyebrows for his purported slip of tongue on Sunday when referred to Sakshi Malik and PV Sindhu as “gold medallists”, despite the fact that they won bronze and silver respectively.
After deciding to form a task force to prepare for the next three Olympics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday asked states to set up similar panels as “lot more” needs to be done to improve India’s performance in sports.
On his meeting with Sindhu, he said ” Delighted to meet you @Pvsindhu1.
Praising the two Indian medal winners and their coaches Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed that the players had honoured the gathering by gracing the occasion. First of all, I would like to thank Sachin sir and Chamundeshwari garu for gifting me a vehicle.
Sakshi had previously won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and the bronze medal at the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championships in Doha. “I had dreamt of going to the Olympics and winning a medal there. I thank various other coaches also”, Sachin said. I am thankful to my coach because the whole journey till now I am with him.
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Sakshi thanked those who showed their love and affection and promised to go for gold in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
