TheSportsCampus

< Prev		Next >

India's ace shooter Samaresh Jung was appropriately rewarded for a fantastic performance at the Commonwealth Games with the highest honour possible, when he was bestowed with the David Dixon Award for the most outstanding athlete of the Games on Sunday.

The 36-year-old Indian began the games with a silver and went on to win five gold medals and a bronze from eight events, becoming the highest medal winning Indian in the history of Commonwealth Games. His amazing run ended with a weapon malfunction as he went medal-less in his final event, the 25m standard pistol.

Jung won two individual gold medals in the 10m and 50m air pistol events, besides a bronze in 25m centre fire pistol. He also won three gold and one silver in the pairs events. The only athletes to ever win 6 gold medals at a Commonwealth Games are Australian swimmers Susie O'Neill (1998) and Ian Thorpe (2002).

This was the third Commonwealth Games for Jung. After failing to get any medals in 1998, he won two gold and three silver medals in 2002.

The winner of the David Dixon Award is chosen on the basis of three criteria: performance at the games, fair play and an overall contribution to their team's participation. The award was instituted in 2002 in memory of the former secretary-general of the Commonwealth Games Federation. The inaugural award went to swimmer Natalie Du Toit of South Africa. She has won the 50m and 100m events for Elite Athlete with a Disability (EAD) and broke two world records.  The 22-year-old South African had her lower left leg amputated following a motorcycle accident in 2001, but courageously returned to swimming later that year.

Sadly Jung had already left Melbourne for China where he is taking part in a World Cup event, so Raja Randhir Singh of the Indian Olympic Association received the award on the shooter's behalf.