Youth Olympics : Praveen Chitravel, Farm Labourer's Son Wins Bronze In Triple Jump
Buenos Aires, Oct 17 : Praveen Chitravel, a farm labourer's son from Tamil Nadu, clinched a bronze medal in the men's triple jump to give India its second athletics medal in the ongoing Youth Olympics here.
The 17-year-old Praveen, who hails from a village in Thanjavur district, cleared a distance of 15.68m to finish fifth in the Stage 2 competition Tuesday night but his good showing in Stage 1, where he was third with a jump of 15.84m, took him to the podium with a combined effort of 31.52m.
In a new format, there are no finals in track and field, except for the 4km cross-country, in the Youth Olympics and each event is held twice, with results from both rounds counting towards the final standings.
Alejandro Diaz of Cuba won the gold with a combined effort of 34.18m (17.14m + 17.04m) while Emmeanuel Oritsemeyiwa (16.34m + 15.51m) of Nigeria took the silver.
This was India's second athletics medal in the ongoing Games after Suraj Panwar clinched a silver in the men's 5000m race walk event on Monday.
Praveen, a gold medallist in the inaugural Khelo India School Games this year, belongs to an extremely poor family in a small village in Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu and his father is a daily wage farm labourer.
Praveen luckily met a mentor in Indira Suresh, an athletics coach at the Centre of Excellence for Boys in Chennai who is an employee of the Sports Development Authority of India, and she groomed him. He now trains under Indira at Nagercoil.
"When Praveen was in Class VII at the CoE in Chennai, I spotted him and took him under me. When I was shifted to a college in Nagecoil, he also came to me and said he will train only under me. So, I got him admitted to my college," Indira told PTI on Wednesday.
"Not even Praveen, his younger bother also is training under me now.
"He is from a very poor family in Thanjavur district, his father is a daily wage farm labourer and his mother is a housewife. He has an elder sister and a younger brother. His father's meagre income cannot support the cost of his training," she added.
Praveen won a silver medal in the Junior National Championships in Coimbatore this year and Indira feels that he has the potential to reach the highest level and compete in the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympics in future.
"Praveen has the talent and he is very hardworking. He rarely goes home, and so his father comes to meet him. I want to groom him as a national champion and then represent the country in the Asian Games and the Olympics," she said.
He now studies B.A. first year at a college in Mangalore in Karnataka under the sports quota but still trains at Nagercoil.
"Praveen goes to Mangalore only to appear for examinations as he gets exemption from the college to train at Nagercoil with me. He was earlier in the national camp briefly.
"He gets some stipends and with some financial support from others, I am supporting him in his training, participation in competitions etc. His family has no money to support him in his athletics career," the coach said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Thousands of women offer pongala at Attukal Bhagavathy temple
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Thousands of women from across Kerala and outside the state offered 'pongala' to the presiding deity of the Attukal Bhagavathy temple here on Tuesday, braving the hot weather and turning the state capital into a huge 'yagyashala'.
Women, of various ages and wearing caps or white shawls over their heads, were ready since last night with their makeshift brick stoves along the roads for several kms in the heart of the city.
The rituals began around 9.45 am when the chief priest lit the main stove (Pandara Aduppu) near the shrine, signaling the start of the annual event.
ALSO READ: Kantara mimicking case: HC extends interim relief given to actor Ranveer Singh till March 9
As the drum beats and music signalled the lighting of the main stove near the shrine, the women, waiting on the roadsides and specifically designated areas for the ritual, lit their brick stoves and began preparing the 'pongala'.
The 'pongala' is cooked using rice, jaggery, and scraped coconut in fresh earthen or metal pots.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Kerala, Deepa Dasmunshi, also participated in the ritual, the first time for her.
"This a very well-known festival. People all around the world know about it. It is a divine thing with women sitting together and making their offerings. I am making 'payasam'," she told a TV channel.
Union Minister of State for Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Shobha Karandlaje also participated in the festival.
LDF ministers V Sivankutty, G R Anil and V N Vasavan, Congress MLA M Vincent, grand old party leader K Muraleedharan, BJP leader and former Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Thiruvananthapuram corporation Mayor V V Rajesh were among the political leaders present at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple to witness the ceremony.
Speaking to media, Vasavan said arrangements were made expecting a larger turnout than in previous years and everything worked out as planned.
"There will be no hassles in the return journey of the devotees. Steps have been taken to provide food, water and other facilites to ensure a smooth pilgrimage for the devotees," the minister said.
Chandrasekhar said he was proud and happy to see the festival's size and scale.
"This is Keralam, God's own country. We respect all religions. We all should celebrate all festivals, be it Attukal Pongala or Christmas, together irrespective of religion, that is our view," he told a channel.
Preparing 'pongala' is considered an auspicious all-women ritual as part of the annual festival of the Attukal temple here, popularly known as the "Women's Sabarimala."
The ceremony will conclude with the sprinkling of holy water by temple priests at an appointed time in the afternoon.
Extensive arrangements were made by the authorities to provide food, water and medical aid to the devotees.
The police, fire department and Railways have put in place arrangements, including restrictions on vehicular movement and parking, to ensure the festival is celebrated without any mishap or inconvenience to the general public.
The pongala festival marks the finale of the 10-day ritual at the shrine.
The festival begins with the "Kappukettu ceremony," featuring the musical rendition of the Goddess's story (Kannaki Charitam) by authorised families invoking the presence of Kodungallur Bhagavathy and the slaying of the Pandiyan King.
The nine-day recitation culminates in a dramatic moment marked by temple drums and devotees' chants, leading to the lighting of stoves for the Pongala offering, symbolising the triumph of good over evil.
The ritual had made it to the Guinness Book of World Records in 2009 for being the largest religious gathering of women on a single day when 2.5 million took part in it.
As per local legend, the annual festival commemorates the hospitality accorded by women in the locality to Kannagi, the heroine of the Tamil epic 'Silappadhikaram', after she destroyed Madurai city to avenge the execution of her husband Kovalan, for wrongly branding him as "thief".
VIDEO | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: Thousands of devotees participate in the Attukal Pongala festival at Attukal Bhagavathy Temple.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) March 3, 2026
(Full video available on https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/nlhaJHiPgY
