Asian Games 2018: The silence of Punjab Government ‘surprises’ Tejinder Singh Toor’s team

Tejinder Singh Toor, the gold-medal winning athlete at the ongoing 18^th Asian Games is left “surprised” at the silent reaction of the Punjab government on the prize money for its athletes.

Toor broke the Asian Games record in the shot-put event by throwing the iron ball at a distance of 20.75m.

A source close to the 23-year old, as quoted by The Indian Express said, “It is really surprising. Tejinder is so far the only gold medallist from Punjab at the Asian Games but nothing has been announced for him. Haryana, Delhi and Odisha governments were quick to acknowledge the performances of their state athletes.”

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Toor, when asked about the reaction of silence from the Punjab government said, “My job is to perform on the field and I am focussed on that. It is up to authorities.”

“Maybe they are waiting for him go back to Punjab,” MS Dhillon, his coach said.

Toor’s historic performance at the Games on August 25 had invited a lot of praise and one of them came from Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh who had taken to Twitter to wish the athlete.

“Double Congratulations to our Moga boy Tejinderpal Singh Toor for setting a new National Record in the Men’s shot put throw event and winning the Gold Medal in #AsianGames2018. Proud of you!,” read a tweet by the Punjab CM.

A prize money of Rs 3 crore to gold medallists, Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 75 lakhs to bronze medallists were announced from the state government by the Haryana sports minister Anil Vij.

“We’ll give HPS (Haryana Police Services) or HCS (Haryana Civil Services) job to gold medallists and Class 1 government job to silver medallists,” announced Vij.

A cash award of Rs 1.5 crore was announced by the Odisha Government for sprinter Dutee Chand who bagged the silver medals in the women’s 100m and 200m categories.

The Tamil Nadu government also declared a prize money of Rs 20 lakh to the table tennis bronze medallist winners from the state- G Sathiyan, Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj.