After four days of fun, frolic, dance and songs, curtains came down at Riviera 2019, the four-day annual international sports and cultural carnival organised by the Vellore Institute of Technology on Sunday.
While SASTRA, Thanjavur, bagged the championship trophy in the arts and cultural category, VIT, Vellore, won the championship trophy in sports. There were 129 events in the four-day carnival.
Dance, drama, “anthakshari” competition in Tamil and Telugu, poetry and essay competitions, seminars and debates on various topics, and short films in Tamil and English were the highlights in art, literary and cultural category.
Cricket, snooker, swimming, basketball, volleyball, handball, athletics and Mr. Riviera were part of the sports category.
About 38,000 students from 700 universities and colleges in 25 countries in Asia, Africa and Europe participated in the four-day extravaganza.
Homage to jawans
Staff and students of VIT paid homage on Saturday to the 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel who were killed in the terrorist attack at Pulwama.
Sekar Viswanathan, Vice-President of VIT, said that India would have to give a fitting response to the loss of lives it has suffered because of the terrorist strike and conveyed his deepest condolences to the family members of the slain personnel.
Later in the day, actor Shruti Haasan delivered the valedictory address and presented the trophies to the winners of various events. Prizes and certificates totalling ₹20 lakh were distributed on the occasion.
Mr. Viswanathan presided over the valedictory function. Sandhya Pentareddy, executive director, and S. Narayanan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Amit Mahindrakar, Director, Students Welfare and S. Sasikumar, convener, participated.