Over 350 children of 14 special schools across Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts participated in the 18th edition of the Special Olympics, sports event for the specially-abled organised by Junior Chamber International Visakhapatnam (JCI Vizag), held at the Diamond Jubilee Port Stadium here on Sunday.
Divisional Railway Manager Anup Kumar Satpathy, who participated as the chief guest, declared open the sports meet. GITAM Deemed to be University president M. Sribharat, Jeevan Jyothi Volla of Junior Chamber (ZVP-Region B) and MD of Ora Motors Krishnakanth participated as guests at the inaugural function.
More than 60 categories of sports events were organised for the special children in the age groups of 8 to 12, 12 to 20 and above 20 years. The children with visual and hearing impairment, physically and mentally challenged children participated with great zeal and enthusiasm. Some of the events included 50 m and 100 m running, shotput, javelin throw, wheelchair race, disc throw and softball. Breakfast, lunch and snacks were served to all the children, their escorts, parents and coaches.
GVMC Commissioner G. Lakshmisha participated as the chief guest at the valedictory function held in the evening.
Special invitees
The special invitees were specially-abled people from Visakhapatnam, who are an inspiration to others. They include: Dev Prasad, a visually challenged person, Sai Padma, who is afflicted with polio and founder-president of Global AID, B. Pragnand, a food innovator and social entrepreneur, Dilip Patro, founder of The Ability People, and Kavya Purnima, a young woman, with later visual impairment. Medals were presented to the winners and certificates were given to all the participants.
Founder of the Special Olympics Prakash Kochar said that while all children were special, some of them were more special. The rolling shield was given in the name of his younger brother Prem Kochar, who lost his life in an accident, every year to the school, which has done well in all categories of the events.
The need of the hour was to encourage interested children, irrespective of their disabilities, to take to sports as parasports was gaining a lot of importance in India and the world.
A group of Amateur Radio Operators (Dolphin Amateur Radio Repeater Club) was set up for Radio Communication in case of emergency services for children on the ground. Students of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Waltair, and some Scouts of the school volunteered to give a band performance. The food was sponsored by Sri Sai Samsthan Charitable Trust.
JCI Vizag president S. Venkatesh and secretary V. Chaitanya were present.
