Para athlete Jayanti Behera, hockey Olympian Deep Grace Ekka and chess coach Satya Ranjan Patnaik received the Biju Patnaik Sports Award for the year 2019 in different categories today. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik presented these State Government awards on the occasion of Natonal Sports Day through video conferencing due to Covid pandemic.
Both Jayanti and Deep Grace bagged the Biju Patnaik award for outstanding performance in sports and games. Both received cash award of Rs 2 lakh each. Biju Patnaik Sports Award for excellence in coaching went to Patnaik, who received Rs 1 lakh.
Surprisingly, the Biju Patnaik Sports Award for 2019 was not conferred in other three categories _ Best Contribution to Promotion of Sports and Games, Life-time Achievement and Excellence in Sports Journalism. In fact, for the second successive year, no names were found deserving for the Life-time Achievement and Excellence in Sports Journalism awards.