Govt ends cash awards for junior athletes to curb doping, age fraud
Junior athletes winning international medals will no longer receive cash awards from the government. This major Sports Ministry policy shift, which came into effect on February 1, is aimed at tackling the twin menace of doping and age fraud as well as “keeping the hunger of youngsters alive”.
According to the old system, a gold medal at the Junior World Championship would fetch an athlete approximately Rs 13 lakh while a top of the podium finish at Asian or Commonwealth had a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh.
A Sports Ministry official said one of the key factors behind this decision was to promote junior competitions as developmental events rather than making it all about a podium finish.
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“We noticed that only India follows a model where junior champi...