‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh to get lifetime achievement award

Kolkata: Legendary Indian athlete Milkha Singh, also known as The Flying Sikh, will be awarded the Bluechip CSJC lifetime achievement award here Saturday.

The 77-year-old former sprinter had missed a 400-metres bronze by a whisker at the 1960 Rome Olympics. He won golds at the 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games, 1958 Tokyo Asian Games and the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games.

“Milkha will be here to personally take the award,” Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club secretary Purnendu Chakraborty said.

Former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly and ex-Indian football skipper Bhaichung Bhutia will be given special awards at the function to be held at the historic Town Hall.

The best sportsmen of the state from various disciplines in 2012-13 will be awarded at the programme.

Among the awarde winners are: Ranti Martins (football), Laxmi Ratan Shukla (cricket) , Guru Pratap Singh (hockey), Kritika Sinha Roy (table tennis), Sanu Debnath (swimming) , Rakshena Khatun (volleyball), Aritapa Dasgupta (badminton), Amrita Mukherjee (tennis), Mary Ann Gomes (chess), Mampi Das (junior sports person of the year, shooter) and Rahim Nabi (best senior sports person in the country).

Veteran scribe Shyam Sundar Ghosh would be felicitated for completing 50 years in sports journalism.