CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Friday greeted paralympic gold-winner Mariyappan Thangavelu, one of the five Khel Ratna picks for this year.
“Greetings to our son of the soil,” Palniswami said in a brief tweet in Tamil, which was accompanied by the athlete posing with his medal.

The Union Sports Ministry had on Friday selected star cricketer Rohit Sharma, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, Mariyappan Thangavelu, TT player Manika Batra, and women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal for the Khel Ratna award, the country’s highest sporting honour, for this year.
PMK Youth Wing leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, greeted all the sportspersons selected for Khel Ratna and Arjuna awards and described the honour for Thangavelu as “deserving.”
He recalled the humble background of the athlete and pointed out he scaled great heights in Rio 2016 Paralympics games where he bagged gold in high jump.
BJP state unit president L Murugan also greeted Thangavelu.