Srikanth wins Athlete of the Year

Bengaluru, December 16: At the background of the GoSports Foundation Athletes Conclave 2017, the team and management at GoSports Foundation awarded and recognised their most stand-out athletes of the year in a glittering awards ceremony headlined by a conversation on the 'Gold Standard’ with India’s only individual Olympic Gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra, India’s first Paralympic Gold medallist, Murlikant Petkar and two-time Paralympic Gold Medallist, Devendra Jhajharia.

Kidambi Srikanth, who was bestowed with the GoSports Athlete of the Year Award in the Olympic Sport Category, has been a part of the GoSports Foundation since 2012 and in a Video Message from the Dubai Super Series thanked the foundation for all their efforts sharing, " I would sincerely like to thank GoSports Foundation for honouring me with the Athlete of Year Award in the Olympic Sports Category. GoSports Foundation definitely has a great role in my career and they have seen me from the very beginning. In fact, the first international tournament that I played was actually funded by them and I won that tournament.”

Also joining him for the GoSports Athlete of the Year Award in the Paralympic Sport Category for his efforts was Amit Kumar Saroha, who earlier returned this year with a silver medal at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championship.

Having supported Olympians and Paralympians since its inception in 2008, GoSports Foundation awarded the Para Badminton Team with the Spirit of the Sport award for their medal winning feat at the 2017 BWF Para World Badminton Championships and heptathlete Swapna Barman with the Against All Odds award for winning the Gold Medal at the Asian Athletics Championships 2017 despite struggling with injuries this year.

Other winners included fencer Bhavani Devi and golfer Shubhankar Sharma, recognized by the foundation team as the 'Spotlight Performer of the year’ for his recent win at the Joburg Open on the European Tour, Rajinder Singh Rahelu, as 'Enabler of the Year’ and Manav Thakkar with the 'Consistent Performer of the Year’ award.

List of all Winners at the GoSports Foundation Awards.

1. Spotlight of the year: Bhavani Devi (Fencing) & Shubhankar Sharma (Golf)

2. Most Promising Athlete (Olympic Sports): Jeremy Lalrinunnga (Weighlifting)

3. Most Promising Athlete (Paralympic Sports): Jayanti Behera (200m, 400m and 800m, Para Athletics)

4. Consistent Performer of the Year: Manav Thakkar (Table Tennis)

5. Most Improved Performer of the Year: Sharad Kumar (High Jump, Para Athletics)

6. Enabler of the Year: Rajinder Singh Rahelu (Powerlifting)

7. Against All Odds: Swapna Barman (Heptathlon)

8. Spirit of Sport: Mark Dharmai, Manoj Sarkar and Suhas Yathiraj (Para-Badminton Team)

9. Athlete of the Year (Olympic Sport): Srikanth Kidambi (Badminton)

10. Athlete of the Year (Paralympic Sport): Amit Saroha (Club and Discus Throw, Para Athletics)

11. Joseph Ollapally Memorial Award: Avani Lekhara (Para Shooting)