23rd edition of the Wital See Purewal Khed Mela inaugurated

Over 1 lakh people attend Asia’s largest rural sports festival

10th Feb 2014, Chandigarh/ Ludhiana/ Amritsar/ Jalandhar/ Patiala/ Pathankot/ Bhatinda/ Delhi: The 23rd edition of the Wital See Purewal Khed Mela was inaugurated by IG Jalandhar, Surinder Singh Sodhi at Jagatpur Stadium, Hakimpur, Nawan Shehar district. The two-day event, also known as the rural Olympics of Punjab’s Doaaba region, was organized by Canada-based Purewal family. The rural sports festival was organized to promote and incentivize sporting excellence across rural India.

The event drew talent from various parts of the country and continues to be one of the largest rural sports festival across Asia. More than 1 lakh people attended the event which included people from across the country as well as spectators from Canada, United Kingdom, USA and Australia.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Jyoti Narain, Executive Director, Wital See Marketing Limited said, “Khed Mela is our way of reaching out and encouraging hidden sporting talent in our country. Through this initiative we aim to support the budding talent so that they do not suffer because of financial constraints. Each winner in every sporting activity will be awarded cash prize for their performance. Many of these athletes could have brought us medals at Olympics, if they had the right facilities and training. We wish that the winners from this sporting carnival will make the nation proud in international championships as well.”

International wrestling players from Haryana, Punjab and Delhi also participated in the Mela. The participants also included medal winners from Asian and World Championships. All the wrestling matches were played under the guidance of international wrestling coaches like Suresh Mann and PR Sondhi.

List of winners in wrestling

Category	Winner	1st Runner Up	2nd Runner Up	3rd Runner Up
65 Kg	Harphool Singh	Surjeet Singh	Anil Rathi	Surender
75 Kg	Vikas Khanna	Dinesh	Vishal Singh	Manoj
75+ Kg	Rubaljeet Singh	Navneet Singh	Mandeep Sondhi	Jaskanawar Singh
90 Kg	Deepak	Rambeer	Sunil	Naveen
90+ Kg	Satender Singh	Rubaljeet Singh	Naresh	Baljeet

All winners of wrestling matches were given cash prizes; the highest cash prize was given in the 90+ kg weight category of Rs. 1, 11,000.

List of winners in athletics

Event	Winner	1st Runner Up	2nd Runner Up
Long Jump (Girls)Under 17	Harpreet kaur	Manpreet Kaur	Sarabjeet Kaur
Long Jump (Boys)Under 17	Rajinder Singh	Pawan Kumar	Manish Kumar
Long Jump (Girls)	Amardeep Kaur	Manjinder Kaur	Harpreet Kaur
Shot Put (Men)	Inderjit Singh	Tejinder Singh	Om Prakash
Shot Put(Women)	Navjeet Kaur	Gurleen Kaur	Sarvjeet Kaur
Long Jump (Women)	Kulwant Singh	Simran Singh	Akhit Dandwal
500 Meter Race(Men)	Kuldeep Singh	Makkhan Singh	Pritpal Singh
100 Meter Race(Girls)	Amandeep Kaur	Amandeep Kaur	Manjinder Kaur

All the winners of athletics were awarded a cash prize of Rs. 7,500, 1st Runners up Rs. 5,000 and 2nd Runners Up Rs. 3,500 respectively.

List of winners in kabbadi

• Winner: Baba Sukhcain Das Kabbadi Club, Sahkot
• Runner Up: Sher-e-Punjab Kabbadi Academy, DAV, Jalandhar
• The highest cash prize was awarded for kabbadi; the winning team was awarded Rs. 5 lakh and the Runners-up got Rs. 3 lakh.

Besides sporting activities, this Mela also witnessed a number of cultural activities showcasing the ethos of the state of Punjab. Accomplished traditional artistes performed folk dance, horse-riding, folk music exhibiting their skill. The sporting extravaganza came to an end with a splendid Gatka performance by the Nihangs.