Bhubaneswar: Well-known woman hockey star of Odisha, Lilima Minz, has been selected for the Ekalabya Puraskar 2018, one of the most prestigious sports awards of Odisha.
The Ekalabya Committee comprising jury members drawn from different walks of life took a unanimous decision to select Minz for the award at a meeting here on Sunday.
She will get a cash award of Rs 5 lakh along with a citation at the Ekalabya Award function, the date for which will be announced soon.
Lilima had represented the Indian senior team for the first time in 2011 during a four-nation tournament in Argentina. She completed her 100 appearances for the national team. She was also part of the squad that represented India in 2016 summer Olympics. She was also a part of the Indian team that won the gold medal Women’s Hockey Asia Cup after a gap of 13 years at Kakamigahara city in Japan on November 5 last year.
Besides Lilima, two other sportspersons—woman weightlifter Jhili Dalabehera and emerging woman Badminton Player Rutuparna Panda— will be felicitated for their remarkable performances at various international and national level in their respective fields. The duo will receive a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each along with citations.
“We feel humbled and gratified that our relentless pursuit to recognize and foster excellence in sports has reaped rich dividends for the state and the country. We are delighted that we have upheld the values of fairness and transparency, raising the bar with every passing year and that the prestigious Ekalabya Puraskar has carved a special niche in the hearts of sports lovers, said former MP and and Trustee of IMPaCT, Baijayant Panda, while announcing the names of this year’s winners.
The Ekalabya Puraskar has been instituted by IMPaCT, the social wing of IMFA, which has been promoting literature, sports, the arts, culture and other socially meaningful activities in the state for decades.
The annual award given to young upcoming sportspersons has come a long way to be recognized as the most prestigious sports award of Odisha, drawing parallels with many national awards.
It has acted as a catalyst for sportspersons to excel both at national and international level.
The sportspersons who have received the award earlier are international hockey players Dillip Tirkey, Probodh Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey and Dipsan Tirkey, chess players Debashis Das and Padmini Rout, cricketers Shiv Sundar Das and Debashish Mohanty, shooter Shriyanka Sadangi, weightlifter K Ravi Kumar, athletes Dutee Chand, Purnima Hemram and Srabani Nanda.
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