Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin today handed over a cash award to the tune of Rs 3.98 crore to 15 athletes and coaches from Tamilnadu who were part of the Olympics and Paralympics events held in Tokyo recently.
Stalin also gave cash awards to those who took part in the Chess championship organised by FIDE.
Thangavelu Mariyappan who secured Silver medal in the Paralympics high jump events was given a cheque of Rs 2 crore.
After receiving the cheque Mariappan said that he was very happy and this will act as an encouragement for him to achieve more in the future.
The team of Vishwanathan Anand, Aravind Chidambaram, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali who took part in the 2020 Chess championship were each given Rs 20 lakh cheque. Their coach Srinath Narayanan was given a Rs 12 lakh cheque.
Stalin also handed over cheques to participants and coaches of the 2021 World Chess Online Olympiad.
Apart from this Adheepan who won gold in the FIDE World Team Championships held in Kazakhstan in 2019 was also given a Rs 20 lakh cheque.
Iniyan and Shreeja Seshadhri who won the grandmaster title in 2019, P V Nandhitha and V Varshini who won the grandmaster title in 2020 were also given a cheque of Rs five lakh.
It may be noted that Stalin had earlier announced that Rs 3 crore will be given to those who clinch gold at the Tokyo Olympics, Rs two crore will be awarded to those winning silver and Rs one crore for bronze medal winners.