At the event, the Defence Minister gave away cash awards to armed forces sportspersons who won medals during the Commonwealth Games and also felicitated the Services football team that recently won the Santosh Trophy-2012 after a gap of over 50 years.
"I am happy to felicitate armed forces personnel who brought laurels to the nation by bringing medals at the Commonwealth Games. At the same time I sincerely regret the delay caused in presenting these awards to our deserving sportspersons who won in the Games," he said while addressing the athletes.
At the Games held in the national capital in 2010, armed forces athletes contributed with an impressive tally of 10 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze in the overall 38 gold, 27 silver and 34 bronze medals tally. The number of medals won by the Services was more than 25 per cent of the total tally of the Indian contingent at the Games.
The Defence Ministry had announced Rs 12 lakh for each individual gold medal while the silver and bronze medallists received Rs 7 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively.
Chief Petty Officer Omkar Singh, who won 2 gold, 1 team gold and 1 team silver in the shooting events, was awarded the highest cash prize of Rs 38.25 lakh while another shooter Subedar Vijay Kumar bagged Rs 37 lakh for winning 1 gold, 2 team gold and 1 silver medal.
Antony also appreciated the Services Football team that has won the Santosh Trophy with LAC V V Farhad of the Air Force being declared the Man of the Tournament.
