India’s Asian Games gold medallist boxer Vijender Singh was presented as the ‘Samsung Most Valued Performance Award’ at a felicitation programme for the Guangzhou Games’ medal winners here Thursday.
Vijender, who fought with a broken finger in the final against the World Champion, said China proved lucky for him as he won the gold after a bronze medal streak in the Beijing Olympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.“Before the Asian Games I have won bronze medals in some top events. In the Commonwealth Games, I had really wanted to win gold in front of the home crowd but unfortunately that did not happen. I won gold in the Asian Games and China proved to be a lucky place for me,” said Vijender, who won Samsung products worth Rs.250,000.
Shooter Gagan Narang said he was proud of being a flag bearer in the Asian Games, where Indians put up their best performance.
“In the Doha Asiad I had won three bronze and I thought I would improve upon it. I am happy that I won silver in Guangzhou though I would have loved a yellow colour medal. I just missed the gold by one point,” he said.
Indian Olympic Association (IOA) secretary general Randhir Singh lauded Samsung India.
“As team sponsors, Samsung India has been consistently contributing to Indian sports through their consistent support of the Olympic movement and their ‘Sports Ratna’ programme. I would like to congratulate the entire Indian contingent and the medal winners on their achievements,” he said.
Besides Vijender and Narang, Asian Games gold medal winners who turned up were Ashwini Akkunji, Mandeep Kaur, Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, rower Bajrang Lal Thakkar, boxer Vikas Krishan, and the kabaddi men’s and women’s teams.
Other gold medallists like ace cueist Pankaj Advani, tennis players Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh, men’s 400m hurdler Joseph Abraham, trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi, women’s 3000m steeplechase gold winner Sudha Singh and women’s 10,000m winner Preeja Sridharan missed the felicitation function.
