Mumbai: Upcoming Indian pugilists Suranjoy
Singh and Nanao Singh are all set to sign a sponsorship deal
with "Olympic Gold Quest", floated by badminton ace Prakash
Padukone and billiards champion Geet Sethi.
"We will be signing a deal with Suranjoy and Nanao in a
couple of days," said Olympic Gold Quest COO Viren Rasquinha
on the sidelines of the 4th Super Cup Boxing Championship at
the Andheri Sports Complext here today.
"We sign up only with those athletes whom we believe are
genuine contenders to win an Olympic gold medal and who show
capability, ability and consistency," he said.
"They (Nanao and Suranjoy) have already proven they are
the best in the country. Now they have to show they are the
best in the world," the former Indian hockey captain said.
After signing the deal, the organisation will take care
of the funding necessary to improve their performance in terms
of coaching, training, diet, physiotherapy etc, that are over
and above the national government fund, the Olympian said.
In case they want to train abroad, or participate in
international tournaments, we will sponsor their travelling
and accomodation expenses too, Rasquinha said.
"The only condition is that whatever funding we do would
be against the payment of bills as we are a transparent
organisation and want to keep things that way," he said.
"Now all they have to do is be foccused and retain the
hunger to win within them every single day", Rasquinha added.
Three other boxers - women's world champion Mary Kom,
Sanjay Kolte and Usha Nagisetty - had earlier signed up with
the organisation. Badminton ace Saina Nehwal too has a deal
with the NGO.
Olympic Gold Quest was started to identify and support
Indian athletes with a proven track record and who have the
potential to win medals in 2012 London Olympics.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 21:41