CWG team accorded warm welcome in Amritsar
Amritsar, August 6
The players of the Indian weightlifting team that took part in the Commonwealth Games, including four medal-winning players of Punjab, were accorded a warm welcome upon their return from Birmingham as they landed at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport on Saturday.
Officials of the Customs Department clapped while welcoming them and officials of the district administration, led by DC Harpreet Singh Sudan, garlanded them while dhols were being played.
The players included Mirabai Chanu, Bindyarani Devi, Popy Hazarika, Harjinder Kaur, Punam Yadav, Usha Kumara, Purnima Pandey, Gururaja Poojary, Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Achinta Sheuli, Ajay Singh, Vikas Thakur, Lovepreet Singh and Gurdeep Singh. These players won 10 medals for India in the Commonwealth Games, including three gold medals, an equal number of silver medals and four bronze medals.
Vikas Thakur, Harjinder Kaur, Gurdeep Singh and Lovepreet Singh are from Punjab. Being a local, Lovepreet Singh was a cynosure of all eyes. His native village, Bal Sikandar, is situated close to the airport. So, a large number of people from his village, apart from his family, joined the celebrations outside the airport.
The players then headed to Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports, Patiala, to take part in a state-level welcome programme.
