Bhubaneswar10/7/17:: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at a special function here felicitated the Indian athletes with cash awards who won medals at the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships (AAC)-2017 held at the Kalinga Stadium here from July 6 to 9.
The gold medal winners were awarded with Rs 10 lakh each, silver medalists with Rs 7.5 lakh each and bronze medalists with Rs 5 lakh each.
An announcement in this regard was made by the Chief Minister during the closing ceremony of the athletics meet yesterday.
Among others, state sports minister Chandra Sarathi Behera and Adille Sumariwalla, president, Athletics Federation of India were present on the occasion.
Worth mentioning, India took the top spot in the medal standings with 12 gold, 5 silver and 12 bronze.
This is the best performance by Indian athletes at the Asian Championships so far. Their previous best finish was in the last edition in 2013 at Wuhan, China, where they finished third with 4 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze.