SA Games’ medallists set for cash awards

The Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) is all set to make good on their promise to provide cash-awards to the medal winners of the just concluded South (SA) Games on January 11 at a city hotel, confirmed BOA secretary general Syed Shahed Reza yesterday.

About Tk 3.77 crore will be disbursed among the athletes with BOA president and Army chief General Aziz Ahmed expected to attend as chief guest of the reception.

Bangladesh broke their previous record by winning 142 medals -- 19 gold, 33 silver and 90 bronze – at the regional multi sports extravaganza, held in Nepal from December 1 to 10.

Ahead of the SA Games, the BOA announced that cash awards amounting to Tk six lakh, Tk three lakh and Tk one lakh would be provided to the gold, silver and bronze medal winners in individual events respectively. Meanwhile, each member of the gold silver and bronze medal winning teams would receive Tk one lakh, Tk 50 thousand and Tk 30 thousand respectively.

“We are determined to keep our promises. We believe as soon as we hand over our promised money to the medal-winning athletes, they will be encouraged more,” said Reza at the BOA Office yesterday.

Although, Reza might be pleased with Bangladesh’s over-all performance since it led to their all-time best results in the SA Games, he does regret that the country missed out on gold medals in a few disciplines.

“We expected to win gold medals in some disciplines such as football, swimming, shooting, wushu and boxing but we could not achieve it. However, I’m not disappointed with the over-all performance because the athletes produced their all-time best results in SA Games,” said Reza, adding that they actually need long-term and short-term training to keep this success intact for future.