Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today handed over cash awards amounting to Rs 4.09 crore to 72 sports persons and 42 coaches.
The sports persons were honoured for their excellence at various National and international level events, an official release said.
Sixty six athletes who won various medals at the 35th National Games held in Kerala in 2015 were given cash awards totalling Rs 2.83 crore by Palaniswami at the Secretariat, the release said.and
Cash awards totalling Rs 27.90 lakh were given to 29 trainers.
The chief minister presented cheque of Rs 50 lakh to T Seralathan who bagged the gold medal at the World Kabaddi Championship held in Gujarat last year.
S Anthoniammal, who won the gold at the 5th Beach Asian Kabaddi Championship at Vietnam, Siva Mahadevan, who won the International Master title in Chess, I Pavithra and N Nadhiya who won silver medals at the junior level kabaddi championship were also honoured by Palaniswami.
Thangavelu Mariappan, who won the gold medal in the Paralympics Games last year at Brazil and his Coach T Sathyanarayana besides G K Monisha, who won the Woman International Master title in chess, were also honoured.
Minister for School Education, Sports and Youth Welfare, K A Sengottaiyan, Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, and senior government officials were present.