Malleswari named The Sportstar Sportsperson of the Year - 2000

CHENNAI, DEC. 23. Karnam Malleswari, who created history at the Sydney Olympics by becoming the first Indian woman to win a medal (bronze) in the quadrennial Summer Games, has been named The Sportstar's Sportsperson of the Year - 2000.

Malleswari, incidentally, is also the first woman to be picked for the prestigious annual award by the country's leading English language sports magazine which is a sister publication of The Hindu.

The Andhra-born weightlifter will receive Rs. 1 lakh, a silver salver and a citation.

The Sportstar has also selected former football Olympian Sailen Manna for its ``Legend of Indian Sport'' award (Rs. 1 lakh and a citation). The year's two Young Achievers awards, which carry a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 each, have gone to Deep Sengupta, who won the World under-12 chess championship, and Seema Antil, who won a discus gold in the World junior athletics championship.

The Sportstar awards are given for consistent excellence displayed by sportspersons during a calendar year and its first Sportsperson of the Year was Sachin Tendulkar in 1994.

The following are the other winners of the main - Sportsperson of the Year - award. 1995: Viswanathan Anand; 1996: Leander Paes; 1997: Saurav Ganguly; 1998: Mohammed Azharuddin; 1999: Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes.

Sunil Gavaskar, Ramanthan Krishnan, Milkha Singh, Wilson Jones and Leslie Claudius have preceded Sailen Manna as The Sportstar Legends.

This year's winners will be felicitated by The Sportstar at its annual awards function here next year. Last year's winners are to be felicitated on December 30 here.

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Section  : Sport
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