udupi udupi district administration on thursday honoured its own sonofthesoil gururaja poojary 25 who bagged a silver medal in the just concluded 21st commonwealth games at gold coast australia it was gururaja who opened indias medal account on the first day of the competition with silver in mens 56kg category gururaja had equalled his personal best of 249kg to finish second behind malaysias muhammad izhar ahmeddeputy commissioner priyanka mary francis who felicitated gururaja said his performance is a matter of pride for the entire district and will inspire other athletes to excel in international sports meet the support given by his family hailing from a relatively poor economic background to help him excel in sport and his coaches and all those who stood by him is laudatory dc said and hoped all sportspersons learn from his endurance and ability to beat the oddsgururaja thankful to the administration for having honoured him said it is a matter of personal satisfaction for him to have bagged the silver in the commonwealth games the reception that i got when i came to the district after my medal winning feat was heart touching he said adding that such support should be available to all sportspersons this will only help more sporting talent to blossom rural sporting talent need all the support they can get he averredsetting sights to better the performance in asian games and world weightlifting championships gururaja said it is his aim to bag an olympic medal for india in the future i will work hard to realize these personal aims which bring glory to the nation he said shivananda kapashi ceo udupi zp wished gururaja realizes his ambition anuradha additional dc and roshan kumar assistant director department of youth empowerment and sports were present