Special kids Pramila and Dhanya win gold for India at Special Olympics

Special kids Pramila and Dhanya win gold for India at Special Olympics

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Jul 3: Pramila Joyce Pinto, a student of Manasa Rehabilitation and Training Centre for Mentally Challenged Children at Pamboor in Udupi, won one gold medal and 3 bronze medals at the Special Olympics for special children, held at Athens.

Pramila won the gold in the F1 category of the 30-m straight lane roller skate event and two bronze medals in the F1 and F2 categories of the 30-m Slolom roller skate event.

Daughter of Robert Pinto and Philomena Pinto, Pramila is from Bodanthila in Vamanjoor. Since she was unable to gain entry into general schools, she was admitted to the special school in Manasa in 1998, after which she showed a lot of interest in cultural and sports events.

Currently, she is doing her vocation course in arts and crafts. Since she developed interest in roller skating, she displayed her talent for it at a national-level competition held in 2009 and got positive attention at the national level. She participated in the training camps held in Pondicherry in June 2010 and Hyderabad in Oct 2011 and got selected for the Special Olympics, which was held from June 22 to July 4 in Athens, Greece.

Pramila’s school, especially Mr. Laxminarayana Upadhya, who trained her for the event and social workers Jayashree Krishnaraj and Nithaynand Olakadu, are proud of her.

Dhanya Rao of Mangalore won the silver medal in 30-m roller skating slolom race and the gold medal in the F1 category of straight racing. Uzam Begum won the silver medal for the same event.

The gold medal for the F2 category was bagged by Ashka Patel. The gold and the bronze for the F3 category were also bagged by Indian atheletes. The gold in the men’s 4x100m relay and the gold and the silver medals in the 30-m straight race and the gold in the M3 category were also won by Indian players.

Indian athletes bagged medals in several athletic events too. Anita Rega won the bronze in the shot put while Michael Rocky won the bronze in the 400-m race.