Madurai kids to put up a ‘different’ show at Tokyo Special Olympics

Recently, students of Bethshean Special School at Madurai won the state-level tournament held at Madurai and were selected to play at the national level. Of the 10 players in the state team, five faces, Navin Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Muthu Kumar, Kamalesh and Rishikeshan, were from Bethshean school. 

The national event was held at Chennai and the final encounter between Tamil Nadu and Goa ended in a draw. Following that the best from the lot were selected for the 10-member Indian team, which included Navin Kumar and Manoj Kumar, to represent the country in Tokyo Special Olympics. 

Jeyapal, Madurai District Coordinator, Special Olympics-Bharat, told DTNext that the students, who were mentally retarded, needed special training. They were first taught the game. Then the chosen students were subjected to rigorous training before being shaped into players of national quality. But now all their efforts have borne fruit as for the first time students were selected from Madurai for the Special Olympics. 

“The task is now even more difficult as they have to be trained for Olympics to compete with talents from across the globe. The students will be given coaching during the three-year period and all efforts would be made to train them to win gold medal in the event,” said Jeyapal. 

Similar to basketball, two other students had also won medals in two other disciplines. Yuvan Shankar secured bronze medal in the 100-metre free style swimming. Arun and Yuvan shankar secured gold and bronze medal respectively in Bucee game at the national event. 

All the special athletes were honoured by Madurai Collector K Veera Raghav Rao at the Collectorate on Monday.