One can describe it as a rare coincidence if an Arjuna awardee of Odisha hands over an award to another Arjuna awardee of the State. This happened today as K Ravi Kumar delivered the OSJA Lifetime Achievement Award to Bijaya Kumar Satpathy at his Somnath Nagar residence in Berhampur, Ganjam.

It may be mentioned that both are Commonwealth Games medal winning weightlifters, both are Arjuna Awardees and both belong to Silk City, Berhampur. Due to health issues, the 71-year-old Satpathy was unable to attend the 7th Annual Award Function of Odisha Sports Journalists Association (OSJA) at Kalinga Stadium yesterday.

Ravi Kumar, also an Olympian and the secretary of Odisha Weightlifting Association, received the award on behalf of Satpathy, who bagged the silver medal in bantam weight category at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games and the Arjuna Award also in 1982.

Ravi Kumar, who won the gold medal in 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games and the Arjuna Award in 2011, left for his home town the same day and handed over the OSJA award along with a cheque of Rs 25,000 to the legendary Satpathy today.