Shrinivas Dempo pledges support
TEAM HERALD
MAPUSA: India’s most acclaimed sport personalities, Viswanathan Anand and Saina Nehwal were in Goa for Olympic Gold Quest’s (OGQ) fund raising hosted by chairman of Dempo Group of companies, Shrinivas Dempo at a city hotel in Panjim, Tuesday.
OGQ is a program of the Foundation for Promotion of Sports and Games, a non-profit organization which is committed to help Indian athletes win Olympic gold medals. It was founded in 2001 by Indian sporting icons Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone. It supports athletes in six individual categories mainly, archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting and wrestling. They also have scholarships for junior athletes.
The World famous Indian sports personalities Viswanathan and Saina recollected their love affair with the State and how they both, won their first Junior Nationals in Goa. The five-time World Chess champion and director of OGQ, Viswanathan felt special to be in Goa where he won his first two junior National chess titles. “It is always special to be here in Goa. I joined OGQ three years ago (2011) as I was very excited about this idea. We aim to clinch 60 Olympic gold medals in 20 years and support from Shrinivas Dempo is certainly a morale booster,” said Viswanathan, who recently had a brilliant victory at the Candidates tournament in Russia to earn a rematch with Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess championship title in 2014. “I am very proud to be associated with OGQ. Four of the six medal winners for India at the London 2012 Olympics: Gagan Narang, Vijay Kumar, Saina Nehwal and MC Mary Kom were supported by OGQ. If we seriously want to double that figure at the Rio 2016 Olympics, we need sustained funds to provide high level of training to the 49 athlete’s under OGQ,” added Viswanathan.
Saina shared her childhood story when her mother, Usha Nehwal had dreamed of an Olympic Gold for her daughter. “My mom told me she wanted an Olympic Gold when I was just nine-years old. However, I was delighted to clinch the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics despite viral fever before the prestigious tournament. I joined OGQ in 2011 and since then, it has been a great support. Chinese and Korean players have good support from their countries but there are problems in India and OGQ is the only organization to help us. Sports is the best field in the World, one can achieve glory in such a short period.” expressed Saina.
Also present was Geet, the nine-time World cue sports champion who was thrilled to be in Goa where sportspersons have always been shown love and respect. “When an athlete wins an Olympic Gold for India, we all enjoy the moment and OGQ adds the incremental value to it. Shrinivas himself is such an avid sports lover and his support to OGQ is a great boost to the current 49 and counting athletes.
Shrinivas pledged his support for OGQ and presented an autographed t-shirt signed by some of the Indian Olympic medal winners as a token of appreciation by OGQ. Viren Rasquinha, former Indian Hockey captain, Olympian, and CEO of OGQ was also present along with Harvir Singh, father of Saina and other dignitaries.
