The Indian Olympic Association unveiled an impressive set of ceremonial and sports attire for the Commonwealth Games, along with the sponsors, in the presence of the Union Sports Minister Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore and a bunch of leading athletes on Monday.
Raymond and Shiv Naresh will provide the attire for the athletes.
Edelweiss support
With Edelweiss offering sponsorship, apart from an insurance cover of ₹50 lakh to each athlete, the IOA has been able to take care of the expenses of sending a strong contingent of 227 athletes, apart from officials, to Gold Coast, Australia.
Edelweiss has also assured support to the Indian contingent for the Asian Games later in the season and the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, along with the National Games for two years.
The Sports Minister wanted the athletes to win fair and be good ambassadors. “We need to show self discipline, be it players, managers, everyone. We will win fairly,” said Rathore.
Expressing the union government’s strong support for sports, Rathore reiterated the government’s stand to make equal contribution to the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF).
“It is a federal fund. So, whenever anyone puts money into it, it gets doubled, as the government puts equal money. “The company that puts the money into the fund can tell where the money can be used, geographically, which athlete, or which sport,” the Sports Minister clarified, as he wished contingent the “very best.”
“Athletes are healthy and we will help them manage their long-term wealth,” said the Edelweiss chairman Rashesh Shah.
The IOA secretary-general Rajeev Mehta said that more announcements would be made soon about other sponsors. The IOA president Narinder Batra said that IOA would continue to strive to be self sufficient and independent, but hastened to add “we will take grant from government.”
The IOA and Rathore maintained that efforts were on to persuade the Commonwealth Games Federation to retain shooting in the 2022 Games. A bunch of leading sportspersons like H.S. Prannoy, Jitu Rai, Harpreet Singh, Rani Rampal, Rupinderpal Singh, Sarita Punia, Manu Baker, Annu Raj Singh, Anish Bhanwala along with gymnasts Dipa Karmakar, Pranita Das, Mohd. Bobby and Gaurav Kumar sported the tracksuits designed for the CWG.
