Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Thursday announced a reward of Rs one crore each for hockey players Vivek Sagar and Nilakanta Sharma, who were a part of the Indian squad that won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Sagar hails from Shivnagar Chandon village in Itrasi tehsil of MP’s Hoshangabad district, while Sharma underwent training at the Bhopal-based Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy.
The Indian men’s hockey team has defeated the best teams in the world in the Tokyo Olympics, an official said quoting Chouhan.
“The Madhya Pradesh government will give Samman Nidhi of Rs one crore each to both of them,” the CM said.
The Indian men’s hockey team rewrote history as it claimed an Olympic medal after 41 years, defeating a plucky Germany 5-4 to win the bronze in an edge-of-the-seat play-off match of the ongoing Games in Tokyo on Thursday.
The eight-time former gold-winners, who battled a heartbreaking slump in the last four decades, made the resurgence of the last couple of years count in the best way possible with an Olympic medal.
Their bronze, which is worth its weight in gold for the sheer emotion and nostalgia that hockey invokes in the country, became India’s fifth medal at the ongoing Games.