TOISA honours the best & budding at ‘Maha Kumbh of sportspersons’

Lucknow: ‘More Sweat, More Glory', the TOISA logo says it all and to honour those who pour their sweat to bringing glory to the nation, The Times of India felicitated our sporting stars at the glittering award show in Lucknow on Saturday.
The event began on a patriotic note with the national anthem, a tune we have heard countless times as our flag rises at the Olympics and other international events, all thanks to the athletes who make the nation proud. The Times of India brought these champions together in ‘Khiladiyon ka Maha Kumbh' to celebrate their remarkable achievements.
Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the sports hub of the country and to honour this, Best State for Sports Promotion has been given to the state and sports minister Girish Chandra Yadav collected the award from Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Earlier, Special Recognition for Athletes from UP was also given by Anju Bobby George to chief coach, Indian weightlifting, Vijay Sharma, Shivpal Singh, Shaili Singh, Annu Rani (all athletics), Mohd Aman (cricket) and Akash Kumar (Kho-Kho).
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath then awarded Gukesh Dommaraju and Manu Bhaker, the two young athletes who created a buzz in their respective games. At 18, Gukesh become the youngest world chess champion in the history of the game, beating former champion GM Ding Liren of China while Manu Bhaker become the first Indian athlete to clinch two medals in the same Olympics, winning two bronze in Paris-2024, 10m women's pistol and 10m mixed pistol events.
Gukesh, who also received the Chess Player of the Year Award, said, "I thank The Times of India for this amazing event and awards. I am really honoured to be among such sports personalities and dignitaries. 2024 was a great year personally for me and Indian chess and I hope 2025 will bring much better results to us."
Change Agent of Sports award was given to world number one para badminton player and Uttar Pradesh sports secretary Suhas LY, who clinched consecutive silver medals at Tokyo and Paris Paralympics while the Para Sportsperson Award was given to record-breaking javelin thrower Sumit Antil. The Best Para Shooter award in the male and female categories went to Manish Narwal and Avani Lekhara while Kapil Parmar walked away with Best Para Junor Player award.
Earlier, TOISA ambassador of the year actor Suniel Shetty, who received the award from the CM, felicitated the TOISA jury, including chairperson of Athletics Federation of India and world athletics championship medallist, Anju Bobby George, president Paralympics committee of India and a Paralympics gold medallist, Devendra Jhajharia, Olympic medallist boxer Vijendra Singh, Hockey India president and former Indian skipper Dilip Tirkey and Olympic medallist in wrestling Yogeshwar Dutt. He was then joined by actor Amit Sadh to give Mentor of the Year award to the first-ever individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra.
The CM then handed over the Federation of the Year award to Paralympics Committee of India (PCI), which was received by PCI president Devendra Jhajharia along with all the para athletes present in the hall, a moment that gave goosebumps to all present at the event. Jhajharia also presented a symbolic javelin to CM Yogi Adityanath.
Other awards given at the event were Emerging Sportsperson of The Year, which went to wrestler Aman Sehrawat for his bronze medal at Paris Olympics and Coach of the Year, which was given to former Indian shooting star Jaspal Rana, who is also Manu Bhaker's coach.
Team of the year award went to the Indian hockey team while the Federation of the Year award was also won by Hockey India. The Special recognition award went to All India Chess Federation.
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Kapil Dev receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Legendary cricketer Kapil Dev received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Indian Olympic Association president PT Usha. In his acceptance speech, the 1983 World Cup winning team skipper said, "In our growing days, we never had ample opportunities, as society was not open to accepting sports as a career. But standing on this stage, being honoured and hearing so much about sports development from the chief minister himself, I think we are headed in the right direction."
"I must thank The Times of India for recognising the hard work of players and for providing a platform where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath himself came to honour sportspersons," he added.