Para badminton coach-cum-mentor Siba Prasad Das and former sports administrator Ashok Kumar Mohanty were honoured with Kamal Ganguly Memorial Sports Awards for the year 2019 in a function, held at Saheed Sporting Ground here today.

Siba Das, who groomed many para shuttlers including World No 1 Pramod Bhagat, received the 7th Kamal Ganguly Memorial Award as the Outstanding Coach of the Year, which carried a purse of Rs 20,000 and citation.

Former hockey player Ashok Mohanty, who served as Assistant Director in the Department of Sports & Youth Services, Government of Odisha, bagged the 5th Ganguly Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was presented with a TV and citation.

The awards were given away by former Indian women football team captain Sradhanjali Samantaray, Bhubaneswar Central MLA Ananta Narayan Jena, in the presence of Maruti Estate India Managing Director Jitendra Prasad Singh, Gupta Distributors MD Rajesh Gupta and Saheed Sporting Club secretary Pankaj Patnaik.

Leading cricket Club Saheed Sporting instituted the Outstanding Coach Award in the memory of eminent cricket coach Kamal Ganguly in 2013. The Lifetime Achievement was added in the year 2015. The awards were not conferred for the year 2016.

ROLL OF HONOUR:

Outstanding Coach Award: For the Year 2012: Kishore Mania (Cricket), 2013: Jose Jacob (Rowing), 2014: Nanda Kishore Patnaik (Football), 2015: Nila Madhab Deo (Athletics), 2017: Ashok Mishra (Gymnastics), 2018: Rashmita Mohanty (Cricket), 2019: Siba Prasad Das.

Life-time Achievement Award: For the Year 2014: Madan Mohanty Mohanty (Cricket), 2015: Bijay Kumar Satpathy (Weightlifting), 2017: Arupananda Routray (Basketball), 2018: Ashokananda Jena (Cricket), 2019: Ashok Kumar Mohanty (General).
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PHOTO: Para badminton coach Siba Prasad Das (1st from right) and former sports administrator (2nd from right) with guests and Saheed Sporting Club secretary at the Kamal Ganguly Memorial Awards presentation function in Bhubaneswar on 8 March, 2020.