Asiad double silver medallist Dharun gets state govt job

Tirupur: The state government has provided a government job to Asian games double silver medallist Dharun Ayyasamy with the Tamil Nadu Newsprints and Papers Limited.
Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami handed over the appointment order to the athlete in Chennai on Monday.

Dharun Ayyasamy, of Ravuthampalayam near Avinashi in the district, lost his father in his early childhood. His mother A Poongodi, 46, who is working as a teacher in a private school, raised him and his younger sister with her meagre income.

As a budding athlete, Dharun had struggled to continue his sports career due to high expenses. As no college in Tamil Nadu came forward to support him financially, he joined Alva’s College in Mangaluru, which gave Rs 25,000 as stipend to him.

Recently, the state government increased sports quota reservation from 2% to 3% in government jobs. Now, it has appointed Dharun as junior officer in Institutional sales department of the TNPL in its corporate office in Chennai. After getting the appointment order on Monday, he joined with the company in the same evening before leaving for Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala, Punjab, to continue his training.

Thanking the government, Poongodi said, “It was important for Dharun to have a government job as it will ensure social security to him, because anything can happen in the sports career. Having a better space, I hope he will bring more medals.”