Thiruvananthapuram, January 08, 2007 - The Government will felicitate the medal winners from Kerala of the recently concluded Asian Games in Doha at a public function to be held at the Central stadium here on January 9.

Disclosing this at a press conference here on Sunday, the Sports Minister, M. Vijayakumar also stated that Indian cricketer S. Sreesanth, who won the Man of the Match award in the Johannesburg Test against South Africa, would also be felicitated at the same function.

While the Asian Games medal winners would be given cash awards, Sreesanth would be presented with a gold medal weighing 10 sovereigns. The Chief Minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, would be the chief guest at the function which is also expected to be attended by the Revenue Minister, K.P. Rajendran, the Water Resources Minister, N.K. Premachandran, Public Works Minister, T.U. Kuruvilla, the Transport Minister, Mathew T. Thomas and the Thiruvananthapuram Mayor, C. Jayan Babu among others.

Besides the 12 medal winners, 17 other athletes from the State who represented the country in Doha and five officials including coaches M.B. Suresh Babu, Sunny Thomas, M.T. Binu and J. Udayakumar would also be felicitated at the function, as per The Hindu.

The Minister said an elaborate plan had been drawn to prepare the Kerala contingent for the coming National Games to be held in Guwahati from February 9 to 18. Camps in the various disciplines would commence on January 15 and a steering committee had been set up to supervise the preparations.

Mr. Vijayakumar termed the public response to the State Sports Super Bumper Lottery as "encouraging". Though sales were not expected to touch the envisaged Rs. 200 crores, it would still help the Government to set up a sizeable amount for the promotion of sports and games in the State.

Prize money details for Asian Games medallists: Rs. 3 lakhs: Anju Bobby George (athletics) and Joseph Chakola (golf). Rs. 2 lakhs: Sinimol Paulose, O.P. Jaisha (athletics) and Johnson Varghese (boxing). Rs.1.87 lakh: Chitra K. Soman (athletics). Rs. 1.12 lakh: K.M. Binu, Joseph G. Abraham, T. Aboobacker (athletics) and Jenil Krishnan. Rs. 1 lakh: P.T. Raghunath (shooting). Rs. 50,000: M. Ramachandran (yachting).