TIRUCHY: Tamil Nadu has achieved several laurels in the field of sports and as a testimony to it, as many as 16 sportspersons from Tamil Nadu are participating in Paris Olympics, State Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Wednesday.

Chief Minister MK Stalin has personally appreciated the Tamil Nadu sportspersons representing India and had distributed an incentive to the tune of Rs 1.12 crore to them, he said.

Distributing sports equipment to the athletes from Tiruchy, Perambalur and Ariyalur, the Udhayanidhi Stalin said, the Kalaignar Sports Kit scheme was launched to help the sportspersons from the 12,575 village panchayats in the State with a total fund of Rs 86 crore to unearth real talents from the rural Tamil Nadu.

“Today, as many as 1,048 sports equipment for 33 types of events have been distributed to the sports persons from Tiruchy, Perambalur and Ariyalur districts. Several sportspersons from these three districts had made several achievements and brought glory to Tamil Nadu in the global platform,” the Minister said.

In order to ensure the availability of all latest sport equipment in every village the Kalaignar Sports Kit scheme was launched and this has paved the way for identifying several talents from the rural areas into sports.