By IANS
New Delhi : BHP Billiton, a renowned natural resource company, will sponsor the Indian Paralympic team for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, it was announced here Thursday
“We will be producing the metal for the medals. So there is a lot of bronze, silver and gold that will be given by us. Hopefully, our players will bring some of them back,” said Aditya Narayan, President of the BHP Billiton.
Biliton, who are the maiden sponsor of Indian Paralymic movement, are also the official diversified minerals and medals sponsor of the Beijing Games and will provide the raw materials to produce the Olympic and Paralympic medals.
President of the Indian Paralympic Committee R. Rathan Singh said that time has come when the Paralympics team is finally getting its due.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the government of India and Sports Authority of India, who are helping us. Our costs for the Beijing are taken care of. With our players like Devendra winning gold in athletics in Athens 2004, we are now recognized at par with Indian Olympic Association (IOA).”
“We will be having 40 persons for coaching and around 20-25 players will be participating in the Olympics. We can tell the exact figures only when we get the results of the World Meet,” he said.
India is going to participate in five discipline namely, atheletics, power lifting, swimming, fencing and shooting. India will also send delegates to Beijing to help them organise the event