World Wrestling Championships: Kiren Rijiju announces cash reward for medal winners

Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday announced a cash reward for all the wrestlers who made the country proud by bagging medals at the recently-concluded World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

Taking to his official Twitter handle, the sports minister revealed that he has handed cheque of Rs 7 lakh for silver medallist Deepak Punia, while the four Indian wrestlers who brought back bronze home have received a cash prize of Rs 4 lakh each.

"Welcome home the Stars of India! The Indian wrestling team came back from the World Wrestling Championships with their best-ever haul of 5 medals. Handed over cheques of Rs 7 lakh for silver and 4 lakh for bronze on their arrival itself. Nation is proud of them," Rijiju tweeted along with the picture with the five wrestlers. 

Welcome home the Stars of India! The Indian wrestling team came back from the World Wrestling Championships with their best-ever haul of 5 medals. Handed over cheques of Rs 7 lakh for silver and 4 lakh for bronze on their arrival itself. Nation is proud of them pic.twitter.com/HYxnpCBZcq — Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) September 24, 2019

Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Ravi Kumar and Rahul Aware were the four wrestlers who ended up with the bronze medals in the prestigious competition. 

Punia, who secured an Olympic berth after he entered the semi-finals of the 86 kg category event of the tournament, settled for the silver after being forced to withdraw ahead of his final clash against Iran`s Hassan Yazdani. 

The pugilist booked his place in the summit showdown of the World Wrestling Championship after defeating Stefan Reichmuth of Switzerland 8-2.

Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian wrestler to book a 2020 Tokyo Olympics berth after defeating Sarah Ann Hilderbrandt 8-2 in the second repechage round of the 53kg freestyle category of the World Wrestling Championship. She later went on to defeat Greece's Maria Prevolaraki to bag a bronze medal. 

Meanwhile, Punia and Dahiya--who also secured two quotas for the Olympics--won a bronze medal each after winning semi-final clashes in their respective categories. 

Punia defeated Mongolia's Tulga Tumur Ochir 8-7 in the 65kg weight category, while Kumar swept aside Reza Atrinagharchi of Iran 6-3 to bag the medal in the 57kg event.

Aware, on the other hand, clinched the bronze after thrashing Tyler Lee Graff of USA 11-4 in the men's 61 kg weight category.