ONGC sportspersons outshone other participants in their respective categories in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. ONGCians bagged 13 medals including 5 Gold, 3 Silver and 5 Bronze, contributing to the 66 medal tally of Team India.
ONGCians Ragala Venkat Rahul won the Gold in Men’s 85 Kg Weightlifting, Heena Sidhu won Gold in women’s 25 m air pistol and Silver in women’s 10m air pistol event in the individual capacity, while in the team events, ONGC’s Madhurika Patkar, Pooja Sahasrabudhe (Table Tennis – Women’s team), A Amal Raj, G Sathiyen, Harmeet Desai (Table Tennis – Men’s team), Ashwini Ponnappa, H S Prannoy, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and R Satwik Sai Raj (Badminton – Mixed Team) were part of the champion teams in the respective category. Desai and Sathiyen also bagged Silver (Men’s Doubles TT) and Bronze (Mix doubles TT) respectively, while Ashwini Ponnappa and Sai Raj also bagged Bronze (Women’s Doubles – Badminton) and Silver medal (Men’s doubles – Badminton) respectively. Apurvi Chandela bagged the Bronze in women’s 10m air rifle while Ankur Mittal shot to Bronze in the Men’s double trap event.
ONGC has a rich legacy of promoting sports and presently employs 171 national and international sportspersons and has provided sports scholarship to 262 players, spread across 24 sports disciplines. Building of sports infrastructure, training in country and abroad, providing necessary kits and instruments, endowing scholarship support and sponsoring young talents to achieve the next level in their respective sports disciplines are integral to ONGC’s sports credo.
Today, ONGC has over 40 national awardees in the organization (Padma Bhushan – 1, Khel Ratna – 1, Padma Shri – 3, Arjuna -34 and Dhyanchand – 1). The President of India acknowledged ONGC’s contribution to sports by conferring the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar in 2014.
