V Anand bags 'Best Sportsperson of the Year' award

It was a star-studded line-up of greats of yesteryears and the stars of the current generation at the second Hero Indian Sports Academy (HISA) Awards function held here on Saturday.

A galaxy of stars was present at the function which include Michael Ferreira, G R Vishwanath, Pargat Singh, Brijesh Patel, Gopi Chand, Saurav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, A T Rayudu and Dhanraj Pillay.

While Vishwanathan Anand bagged the 'Best Sportsperson of the Year' award, the 'Best Sportswomen' award went to India's Olympic medal hope, Anju Bobby George.

The audience gave a standing ovation when G R Vishwanath went up to collect the 'Lifetime Achievement' award on behalf of his brother-in-law Sunil Gavaskar, who is away in London to attend the International Cricket Council's (ICC) meeting.

City girl Sania Mirza, who at present is away on tour, won the 'Best Female Young Achiever of the Year' and the 'Outstanding Performer of the Year' award.

In a recorded message, Sania thanked her parents, coaches and well wishers. Cricketer Rahul Dravid bagged the 'Best Cricketer' award. Dravid's parents collected the award on his behalf.

The highlight of the evening was a dance performance by Ajay Jadeja, Vinod Kambli and Anjali Bagwat and the mimicry show by Vikram Sathe. The audience went into raptures when he mimicked Sidhu, Sachin Tendulkar, Azharuddin and Tony Greig.

The best act of his, however, was when he imitated how Inzamam would be in slow motion chewing gum and taking guard.

The awards were presented in the following categories: Cricket (Rahul Dravid); Weightlifting ( Nandini Devi); Shooting (Anjali Bhagwat); Tennis (Sania Mirza); Athletics (Anju George); Football ( I M Vijayan); Chess (Anand); Hockey (Gagan Ajit); Cue sports (Pankaj Advani); Golf ( Arjun Atwal); other sports-squash (Jyotsna Chinappa); lifetime achievement (Sunil Gavaskar); young achiever-male (Irfan Pathan); young achiever-female ( Sania Mirza); and best team of the year (Indian hockey team).