Local differently-abled Lads Shine in Nat’l Special Olympics Power-Lifting
Local differently-abled Lads – Ashley D’souza from St Agnes Special school, Bendore-Mangaluru; Prajwal Lobo and Abilash from Saanadiya Training Centre for Mentally Challenged kids-Shakthinagar, Mangaluru Win Big In National Special Olympics Power-Lifting held at Kholapur-Maharashtra.
Mangaluru: Special Olympics is a global organization that serves athletes with intellectual disabilities working with hundreds of thousands of volunteers and coaches each year. Since the establishment of Special Olympics in 1968, the number of people with and without intellectual disabilities who are involved with the organization has been growing, but the unmet need to reach more people with intellectual disabilities is staggering. In Special Olympics (Bharath), for every Special Olympics athlete, there are many more waiting for their chance. It’s at the local level–right here–where interested volunteers meet the athletes. That’s where the perceptions start to change and where the miracle of transformation takes place.
Special Olympics provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Those activities give them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship. And Special Schools /institutions in Mangaluru encourage their students to take part in co-curricular activities and sports- and every time these students take part in special olympics they fare well, and bring name and fame to their institution and town- and this time we have three differently- abled students- Ahsley D’souza from St Agnes Special School-Bendore,Mangaluru, and Prajwal Lobo and Abhilash from Saanadiya Training Centre for Mentally Challenged kids-Shakthinagar, Mangaluru.
In the National Special Olympics Power-Lifting competition held at Kholapur-Maharashtra State from July 9-13, five differently-abled children from Karnataka have bagged five gold medals, among them three are from Mangaluru. Ashley D’souza has won two gold medals in the 245 kilo Squat Bench Press Dead Lift; Prajwal Lobo bagged one Gold and one Silver medal in 235 kilo Squat Bench Press Dead Lift, while Abhilash won one gold and one silver in 187.5 kilo Squat Bench Press dead Lift. All these three participants were escorted to the venue by their coach Premnath Ullal from Mangaluru, and all three have undergone training at Mangala stadium-Mangaluru under Premnath.
The winners were taken in a open jeep in a procession which commenced from KSRTC Bust Stand-Bejai and culminated at Circuit House-Kadri, where they were felicitated with a shawl and garland by Minister UT Khader, who also happens to be the president of Special Olympics Bharat-Karnataka; and also by MCC Mayor Kavitha Sanil. Speaking during the occasion, Minister Khader said, ” We should all treat these differently-abled children equally. They too are like us, and want to enjoy the facilities like normal people. I will request the Chief Minister to grant funds for the development of sports for the special children. We all need to encourage and support special kids in their activities and sports- they need our love, care and encouragement”.
Mayor Kavitha Sanil speaking said, ” I too was a power-lifting winner during my younger days- and I too was trained by the same coach who had trained these three differently- abled children. Premnath Ullal is a very dedicated and committed coach who will go beyond his capacity in giving good training to his students. These three children have brought name to Mangaluru and to their institutions- we should all be proud of them, that in spite of their disabilities they have achieved great success in their sporting activity. If any support is required from MCC, we will be happy to oblige”. Sr Shruthi AC- Principal of St Agnes Special School; and Vasanth Kumar Shetty, the administrator of Saanadiya Training Centre for Mentally Challenged kids, said that they are really overwhelmed with the performances of their students at the power-lifting competition.
