New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday felicitated army athletes who were a part of the Indian contingent for the recently concluded Commonwealth Games (CWG) held in Gold Coast, Australia.
Army athletes brought home a haul of three gold, three silver and four bronze medals from the Games.
"The Army will continue to monitor the performance of all athletes and will prepare them for the forthcoming Olympics, expecting better performance from them all," the Army said in a statement.
"The Chief of Army Staff acknowledged their performance and felicitated the medal winners. He further encouraged and motivated the athletes to continue their sustained and focused efforts as they train and prepare for the forthcoming international events, before they launch themselves into the Olympics arena," the statement added.
Among the army athletes, the largest number of medals were won by the boxers, who managed a total of five podium finishes.
Havildar Gaurav Solanki won gold in the men's Flyweight (52 kilogram) division while Subedar Satish Kumar Yadav (+91kg), Naib Subedar Amit Kumar Phangal (49kg) and Naib Subedar Manish Kaushik (60kg) got silver in their respective categories.
Naib Subedar Mohd Hassumuddin had to settle for the bronze medal in the bantamweight (56kg) category.
The shooters got three medals with the experienced Subedar Jitu Rai winning gold while Havildar Om Prakash Mitharval bagged two bronze medals.
In athletics, reigning World Junior champion Naib Subedar Neeraj Chopra won gold along with a new meet record in men's Javelin while Naib Subedar Deepak Lather got a bronze in weightlifting.