Mihika, Kadhe win MSLTA annual awards

Asian junior champion Mihika Yadav and the country's top junior Siddhant Banthia are among the MSLTA annual award winners for performances during the 2017-18 season.

India no. 5 player among men, Arjun Kadhe, no. 4 among women, Rutuja Bhosale, and national sub junior champion Rutuja Chaphalkar were also among the award winners, a media release said today.

"These scholarships for players' performances are a reward to players who have played for the country or have finished in top three in their respective events at the national and state level," MSLTA secretary Sunder Iyer said.

The top three players in each age group were awarded scholarships worth over Rs 11 lakh and apart from the awards, the players will also be given funds for international training.

Vijay Thete of Nashik, Rajesh Dave of Yavatmal and Deepak Somaiya of Amravati were given special awards for development and promotion of the game.

Special awards were presented to coach Kedar Shah for producing national champions and to coaches Aditya Madkekar and Shrinivas Rao Kola for developing players who finished runners-up at the nationals.

The state men's and women's teams, which won the All India inter-state championships at Bhilai, were rewarded with cash prize of Rs 51,000 per player, while state players - Kritika Chhabra and Tejasvi Kate along with coach Himanshu Gosavi were honoured for their bronze medal-winning performance at the Asian School Games in Solo, Indonesia.

Awards were also presented to clubs hosting international events in the state, the release added.