Govindan Lakshmanan was on Thursday awarded Rs 10 lakh by the Sports and Youth affairs minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore for his brilliant performance at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta.
At a programme where all the medal winners for India were felicitated by the government, Rathore also acknowledged Lakshmanan’s efforts in men’s 10, 000m race in which he had won the bronze initially but his medal was snatched for stepping into other tracks.
Lakshmanan was hit on the spike by another athlete causing him to step off his track, which eventually disqualified him from the event.
The Indian team had protested against his disqualification at two levels but it was rejected.
“To encourage the athlete to keep doing the hard work and strive for the medals, the Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Col Rajyavardhan Rathore rewarded him Rs 10 lakh,” a statement from the ministry was quoted by the Press Trust of India.