Lucknow: For every sportsperson, trophies and medals are the prized possession for life, something which he or she would never want to lose. After all, hard work, passion and patriotic feelings are involved in the victory especially at the international level contests.
But the three-time junior world golf champion, Arjun Bhati, has sold all his trophies (102) including world championship and national championship ones over the past one week which fetched him Rs 4.3 lakh. The 15-year-old boy has transferred the entire money to PM Cares Fund Tuesday.
Wasn’t the decision to sell all his prized possessions a difficult one? Arjun, who appeared for class 10 exams this year, tells FPJ, “I wanted to do my bit in India’s fight against covid10. Since I have no earning of my own, I decided to sell my trophies. Trophies can be won later, but I can’t sit idle when my country is in dire need of funds to fight the deadly disease.”
Who has bought these memorabilia? “My relatives and friends of my parents have bought them. Though the trophies are still at my home. I will send them across once the lockdown is lifted,” tells Arjun with much pride.
The 2019 world championship trophy fetched the maximum money-Rs21,000. He won this championship by defeating Taiwan’s Jeremy Chen in California. He was even the best scorer (199) in 13-18 years age category of the game in which 40 counties had participated.
Most national and international sports tournaments planned this year have already been postponed or cancelled. Therefore, Arjun may have to wait to win more trophies. “Yeah, it may take long to get things better. Holding sports meet may take even longer,” Arjun says who keeps himself busy in fitness exercises these days as golf practice is closed.
Arjun gets his inspiration at home. His grandmother, widow of an armyman, has donated her pension to the PM funds last week. His parents are in real estate business. Arjun, a student of the Greater Valley School, Greater Noida has been playing golf for about eight years now.
Until now, he has participated in a total of 157 tournaments out of which he won 120. This includes junior world championships in the year 2016, 2017 and 2019. What next? “Olympic Gold is my only dream now,” says Arjun who plans to take Humanities stream after clearing class 10.