Chandigarh:
Haryana has emerged as a gold mine by contributing 15 out of the 38 top medals India bagged at the Delhi Commonwealth Games and authorities said rewards and incentives to groom budding athletes have borne fruit.
"There are lot of incentives and rewards which we have been giving to our sportspersons. The Sports Talent Hunt Scheme to search and groom the budding sportspersons in the State's rural and urban areas has also borne fruit," Haryana Olympic Association President, P V Rathee said on Thursday.
Besides winning 15 gold medals, Haryana athletes also bagged eight bronze and four silver at the Games.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the players from the state have performed exceedingly well in the CWG and made the country and state proud.
The state is set to honour its CWG medal winners and their coaches in a function to be organised at Sonepat on Haryana Day on November 1.
After an exhilarating medal haul in which most of the victors came from a nondescript villages in the state, Hooda said, "171 stadia are being set up in rural areas to groom rural talent and provide them suitable infrastructure."
The players winning gold, silver and bronze medals would be given a cash award of Rs 15 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively by the Haryana Government.
Rathee said that HOA had requested the State Government to open a Special Academy at Madhuban, where the players who have won the medals at the Delhi CWG and other promising players will get further training for the 2012 Olympics.
"We intend to hire foreign coaches for this proposed Academy so that our players can win medals at the Olympics," Rathee said.
As many of the players from the State who have won medals at the CWG come from rural background, where the State government and the HOA is laying a lot of emphasis to scout and hone talent.
"We also intend to launch a Sports University soon in the Jind-Sonepat-Bhiwani belt as maximum talent comes from that area," the HOA chief said.
The Haryana players won most of the medals in wrestling, shooting and boxing sports while Krishna Poonia broke over five decade old medal jinx in athletics by winning the gold in women's discus throw becoming the first woman athlete from the country to win a CWG medal.