IOA felicitates new FIH chief Narinder Batra

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Friday felicitated its president N. Ramachandran as well as newly-elected International Hockey Federation (FIH) president Dr. Narinder Batra at the felicitation ceremony organised here in Olympic Bhawan.

The ceremony began with IOA president N. Ramachandran presenting a momentum to Dr. Batra, to felicitate the honor.

Rajeev Mehta, Secretary General, Indian Olympic Association, then presented a momentum to the president of the IOA.

International Olympic Council (IOC) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) recently honoured IOA President N. Ramachandran for his contributions to the Olympic Movement.

In August this year during Rio Olympics, IOC President Thomas Bach conferred Ramachandran with Olympic Order Award for his outstanding services to the Olympic movement.

The Olympic Order is the highest award of the Olympic Movement and is awarded for particularly distinguished contributions to the Olympic Movement, that is, recognition of efforts worthy of merit in the cause of sport. Two months later, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) conferred Ramachandran with the prestigious OCA Award of Merit for his outstanding contributions to sports in Asia. With these two recognitions by IOC and OCA makes Ramachandran is the only IOA President to have received the two prestigious awards and that too in close succession.

On felicitation Ramachandran said, "I would like to congratulate Dr. Batra for winning FIH elections with a huge margins and making everyone proud. I am sure under his guidance the sport of hockey will grow more globally. I would also like to thank the IOA family for this felicitation ceremony."

Meanwhile, Dr. Narinder Batra acknowledged his felicitation and said, "I would like to thank IOA for this honor and congratulate Ramachandran for being conferred by IOC and OCA. I can assure you that I will do my best to make our country and you all feel proud."

Dr. Batra was previously the president of Hockey India, and has worked towards changing the scenario of Hockey in the country. His contribution towards Hockey in India has been outstanding for the past five years, he has been working day after day to make sure hockey reaches a level that is at par with all other sports in India.