Chennai: The ruling AIADMK party of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday announced a total cash reward of Rs 15 lakh to Gomathi Marimuthu who won gold in women's 800m race category in Doha at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championship.
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Top leaders of the party O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami, lauded Marimuthu for bagging gold in Women’s 800 m race.
Meanwhile, AIADMK also announced Rs 10 lakh cash incentive to Arokia Rajiv for winning silver in the 4x400m mixed relay.
AIDMK's initiative came in the backdrop of Gomathi's emotional press conference in which the cash-strapped athlete had sought the help of state government.
Paying heed to her press conference DMK and state Congress on Saturday (April 27) announced cash rewards for both Gomathi and Rajiv.
While DMK announced a cash incentive of Rs 15 lakh to Gomathi and Rs 5 lakh to Rajiv the Congress state unit had provided Rs 5 lakh to the Tiruchirappalli based athletes.
Panneerselvam, the AIADMK Coordinator and Joint Coordinator Palaniswami recalled that late party supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had always promoted sports in the state by providing adequate facilities to sportspersons to ensure they brought laurels.
“In line with that, we wish to announce that a sum of Rs 15 lakh will be provided to Gomathi Marimuthu who won gold and Rs 10 lakh to Arokia Rajiv, on behalf of the AIADMK,” the two leaders said in a party statement.
Praising the two athletes for their feats, the AIADMK leaders said that the party wish them good luck and hope they will bring more laurels to the country and Tamil Nadu.
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The 30-year-old, Gomathi, clocked her personal best time of 2 minutes 02.70 seconds in the women’s 800m race last week to clinch the gold medal.
In the 4x400m mixed relay team, which was introduced for the first time in this championship, the Indian quartet of Mohammed Anas, M R Poovamma, V K Vismaya and Rajiv had clocked 3:16.47 to finish second.
