Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme Selections 2018-19-old-1
GoSports Foundation announces six new athletes for Year 3 of the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme
This is the fourth year we are extending our support to Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme as part of our CSR initiative.
In 2017-2018, the programme saw 6 new athletes being selected via an exhaustive selection process of 282 talented sportspersons competing in Olympic disciplines applying for support. The applicants were put through three rounds of screening, based on their performance and future potential. For the final round, 17 athletes were interviewed on April 22, 2017 in Mumbai, by an interview panel consisting of former Indian Rugby National, Actor, Director, and Philanthropist Rahul Bose, Leadership Trainer, Executive Coach, and Programme Advisory Board member Girish Manimaran, and GoSports Foundation Executive Director Deepthi Bopaiah. The new athletes will join 14 others who have remained on the programme from the previous term.
These 20 elite athletes will be offered crucial support by the GoSports Foundation towards fulfilment of their sporting goals – the achievement of which would inspire and help move Indian sport forward. The support structure offered to the athletes will be broadly directed towards:
- Training and Development
- Competition
- Mentorship
- Legal Advice for Commercial Engagements
- Support on Media Management and PR
- Career Guidance
- Knowledge Building Workshops and Seminars
Through our partnership with the GoSports Foundation and under the leadership of Rahul Dravid, the Programme will offer crucial and timely support to Indian hopefuls for the 2018 Asian and Commonwealth Games and the 2020 Olympics.
The twenty elite sportspersons who will be supported by the GoSports Foundation under the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme 2017-18 are as below. The first six were selected through the just-concluded interviews, while the remaining fourteen are continuing from the previous year:
Sl. No. |
Name |
Age |
Sport |
Achievements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Dattu Baban Bhokanal | 26 | Rowing | 13th in Men’s Single Sculls at the Rio Olympic Games |
| 2. | Dushyant | 25 | Rowing | Bronze medalist 2014 Asian Games |
| 3. | N. Sathish Kumar | 25 | Weightlifting | 11th at Rio Olympics in 2016, and Gold medal at Commonwealth Games in 2014, 2018. |
| 4. | Kojum Taba | 20 | Weightlifting | 2016 Sr. Commonwealth Championship Gold medalist |
| 5. | Rakesh Patra | 25 | Gymnastics | Represented India at World Championships in 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2017 |
| 6. | Dipa Karmakar | 24 | Gymnastics | 4th in Vault Final at the 2016 Olympic Games |
| 7. | Sai Praneeth | 25 | Badminton | Singapore Open Super Series Champion 2017 |
| 8. | Kidambi Srikanth | 24 | Badminton | Olympic Quarterfinalist at Rio 2016 and Champion of 4 Super Series Events in 2017, Gold medal (Mixed Doubles) at Commonwealth Games 2018. |
| 9. | Sameer Verma | 23 | Badminton | Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold Champion 2017 |
| 10. | H.S. Prannoy | 25 | Badminton | US Open Champion 2017 |
| 11. | Ruthvika Shivani | 20 | Badminton | Russian Open 2016 Champion, Gold medal (Mixed Doubles) at Commonwealth Games 2018. |
| 12. | Anjum Moudgil | 23 | Shooting (Rifle) | Silver in 10m Air Rifle and Bronze in 50m Prone at 2017 Commonwealth Shooting Championships |
| 13. | Manish Rawat | 26 | Athletics (Racewalking) | 13th in 20km event at the 2016 Olympic Games |
| 14. | M.R. Poovamma | 27 | Athletics (400m & 4X400m Relay) | 2014 Asian Games Bronze medalist in 400m & Gold medalist in 4X400m Relay; Olympian Beijing 2008 & Rio 2016 |
| 15. | Swapna Barman | 27 | Athletics (Heptathlon) | Gold at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships |
| 16. | Saurav Sharma | 24 | Taekwondo | Silver Medalist, Commonwealth Taekwondo Championship |
| 17. | Chikkarangappa S. | 24 | Golf | Winner, PGTI Eagleburg Masters 2016 |
| 18. | Bhavani Devi | 24 | Fencing (Sabre) | Winner of Turnoi Fencing Satellite World Cup in Iceland 2017 |
| 19. | G. Sathiyan | 24 | Table Tennis | Winner, Spanish Open 2017 & Belgium Open 2016, Gold medal (Men’s Doubles) at Commonwealth Games 2018. |
| 20. | Supriya Mondal | 20 | Swimming | Commonwealth Youth Games Silver medalist in 2015 |
The GoSports Foundation (GSF) is a not for profit entity set up in 2008 and working to professionalise Indian sport and aid the development of India’s most talented emerging and elite athletes, competing in Olympic and Paralympic disciplines. The Foundation’s initiatives are premised on the belief that sporting champions are created when the right talent gets the right support at the right time.
India’s only individual Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, former team India cricket captain Rahul Dravid and All England Badminton Champion Pullela Gopichand are on the Advisory Board of GoSports Foundation, and John Gloster, former physiotherapist of the Indian National Cricket Team, is the Head of Sports Science.