Shri C.V. Anand felicitates para-athletes who brought laurels to India & AMF at the national & international level!

Press Release

• 19-07-2022

Lakshmi Manchu & Regina Cassandra to join the Infinity Ride '22 from Shimla to Manali

Hyderabad, July 18th, 2022: Aditya Mehta Foundation (AMF), a non-profit organisation which aids people with disabilities to pursue sporting career while also providing them self-sustenance, hosted the 11th Aditya Mehta Foundation Presentation and Felicitation Ceremony, to honour the athletes trained at AMF and went onto bring laurels by winning national and international medals, at Jubilee Hills International Centre, today. Chief Guest Shri C.V. Anand, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad; felicitated these athletes who made the country and AMF proud. Guests of Honour; Ms Lakshmi Manchu, Mentor to AMF & Actress; Shri SK Joshi, Trustee AMF & Past Chief Secretary, Telangana; Shri K Durga Prasad, Mentor to AMF & Past DG, CRPF; Ms Regina Cassandra, Trustee, AMF & Actress, Philanthropist & Ms Shilpa Reddy, Trustee, AMF & Ex Mrs. India & Entrepreneur. On the occasion the poster of Infinity Ride 2022 was released by the dignitaries and athletes associated with AMF were presented with Rs 80 lakhs worth of equipment.

Chief Guest Shri C.V. Anand speaking on the occasion said, AMF is the brainchild of Aditya Mehta, who does the all hard work, produces all the champions, but keeps away from public glare. In the nine years of its inception the Foundation has led to producing so many champions. All of us with our limbs and faculty in place are so lucky, but still tend to complain about many things, but it’s such a wonder to even see those sports on television, where people who lost their limbs or faculties due to acts of nature, exhibiting the wonderful spirit to compete and excel in the sport or in other functions. Its hats of to you guys for doing so much and showing the path to others who despite being endowed with everything overestimate and take those very things for granted. I also appreciate the theme here of ‘Say No to Drugs’, thank Aditya for taking up this cause. As you all are aware, we are on this drive in Hyderabad and Telangana state, to rid the city of this menace, which seems to be overtaking all the able bodied youth and teenagers. Its a very sad thing that this is happening. The way they are wasting their time, they just need to come and have a look at all of you who have shown the way to struggle and still do well. All the winners here are the real champions and role models for all others. I have known Aditya since I was a DCP and ACP here, I went on deputation to the CRPF, I was in charge of the Airports security. There I came across this issue of frisking of people with disability and Aditya was the guy who was at the forefront of the campaign wanting to make the frisking of disabled being done more caringly and being treated with dignity. His arguments were taken in the right spirit. He facilitated and made much more easier to treat them better, this is another facet of Aditya, which many may not be aware. He is a champion of the rights of the people with disability and really appreciate him. He has done lot of championing of various causes associated with divyang.

Shri SK Joshi said, I am looking forward to the day when AMF facilitates an Olympic medal in para-athletics and confident of Aditya fulfilling that. I am sure when we meet next time we will be felicitating an Olympic medallist.  

Ms Shilpa Reddy said, At AMF we support the athletes right from the grass root level and groom them to compete at the national and international levels. Our vision is to make India the super power in the world of para-sports. Apart from this we have adopted Devnar Blind School, Spurti Intellectual School, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and others, we have trained and rehabilitated the students from the grass root level and they won 44 medals. Recently we made India proud by clinching medals in both road and track events in the Asian Track Championship at Delhi, won totally 5 medals, two gold, one silver and two bronze. AMF will continue to strive to bring more laurels.

Ms Lakshmi Manchu said, we need to celebrate the initiative of Aditya and these athletes for what they achieved despite the hardships they came through and made us proud. We need to talk, share and celebrate their achievement to create hope in several others like these. Most of these para-athletes were not born like this, some incident happened with them, but they didn’t think their life got over, here they are proving to all of us that we can do more and much more.

Ms Regina Cassandra said, AMF’s moto is to make everyone understand that disability is not a disadvantage. Congratulate all those who won the medals and have become a source of inspiration for several others.  

The para-athletes feted on the occasion were,

Shaik Arshad won Silver & Bronze at the 10th Para track cycling championship, Delhi;

Vadla Reddimanikanth won gold medal in 100mts and silver in the 400mts at the State Level Para Athletic Championship, Vizag;

Jyoti Gaderiya won Gold at Asian Road Cycling, Tajikistan & two gold medals at the 10th Asian Para track cycling Championship;

Basavaraj won Bronze medal at 10th para track cycling championship 18-22 June 2022, Delhi;

K. Lokeshwari won Silver medal in Discuss throw at the 20th National Para Athletics Championship-2022, Bhubaneshwar; 2 Bronze Medals in Shotput and Discuss throw at the 19th National Para Athletics Championship-2021, Bengaluru and Silver Medal in Shotput at the 3rd Indian Open Para Athletics Championship-2021, Bengaluru; She is the only female para athlete from Telangana to win Nationals in Para Athletics.

Yogesh won gold & silver medals at the National Para Arm wrestling competition June 2022;

Pawan won 3 gold medals at state level;

Sharath won Silver medal in 100 mts at AP State Para Athletics Games;

Prakhar won Bronze in TT state championship and represented India in Czech Republic 2022;

Gowtham in para badminton; A P State Championship Single 2nd place(2021),Karnataka State open championship 2nd place in Doubles, 3rd Place in Singles (2021)

Karnataka state championship singles 1st place & Doubles second place(2022)

Devnar School in para-athletics Jafer, G. Madhu, Pandhari, Naveen, Ch. Prakash, Nani, Srikanth, Sai Pranith, Subbarao, Sony Sri, Kavya Mamuni;

Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti in para-athletics Aishwarya, B. Pavani, D. Srinidhi, V. Pranathi, B. Indu, G. Venkatesh, Naveen, Rishik, Roshan, Sai Krish, Sai Prasad, Shashi kiran, V Laxman.

Aditya Mehta Foundation later presented Rs 80 Lakhs worth of equipment to ten athletes, including customised Sports Limbs, High Racing cycles; Sports wheel chairs; Sports related equipment. AMF is also extending scholarships for training, nutrition and rehabilitation to these athletes and is also training students of Devnar school for Visually Impaired and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti’s children with disability.

The Infinity Ride '22, an annual cycling event organised to raise funds to train para-athletes and to create awareness about parasports, will be held from 6th to 18th September 2022 from Shimla to Kaza- Manali. The theme of Infinity Ride '22 is "Support Para-athletes, Create awareness of parasports and Say No To Drugs." Celebs like Lakshmi Manchu and Regina Cassandra will join over 10 para-athletes and 25 fundraising riders during the ride. This year’s ride is supported by Narcotics Control Bureau, Indo- Tibetan Border Police, Mudhra trust and Himachal Police.

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