TN will become sports hub of India: Stalin

CHENNAI: The 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad drew to a close here on Tuesday amid extravagant cultural events held at the Nehru Indoor Stadium, with India’s ‘B’ team settled for a bronze medal in the Open section. Presiding over the closing ceremony, Chief Minister M K Stalin said the state government has been implementing several schemes under the ‘Dravidian model,’ to make the State a sporting hub of India.

He said the players and officials would take home not only memories but also tradition, culture and taste of Tamil food. “To make Tamil Nadu a pioneer in sports, the State government under its ‘Dravidian model,’ devised and has been implementing several schemes. For instance, to produce world-class players and more Olympic medal winners, a scheme named Olympic gold hunt will be implemented at the cost of Rs 25 crore. To encourage TN players win accolades bot nationally and internationally, monetary assistance has been given to them, in the last year Rs 26.85 crore was presented as aid to 1,073 players and among them most were chess players,” Stalin said.

He also said that the government is set to expand the scheme of purchasing modern sports equipment and training for players on a larger scale. Under the scheme, 50 players will be selected and they will be trained for four years at the cost of Rs 60 crore. Uzbekistan won the gold medal in the open category and Ukraine won the gold medal in women’s category. India (men) ‘B’ team won the bronze medal in open category while India (women) ‘A’ won bronze medal in women’s category.

The closing ceremony was a cultural extravaganza of various events such as Rubik’s cube by team Hariology, music fusion by four legends ‘Drums’ Sivamani, Rajesh Vaidhya, Stephen and Naveen Kumar. However, the highlight of the evening was ‘Tamil Mann’ (Tamil Soil) , which was curated by Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu. The event recollected the contributions of freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu.