Pinky, Hari gets ESPN sponsorship

Kolkata, Jun 15 (UNI) ESPN STAR Sports today officially announced the sponsorship of two aspiring athletes from West Bengal Pinki Paramanik and Hari Shankar Roy to help them prepare for Beijing Olympics 2008.

Rajesh Kaul, Associate Vice-President, Affiliate Sales, ESPN Software India Pvt Ltd. presented cheques of Rs two lakhs each to the two athletes.

City police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee, also president of Bengal Athletic Association, said, '' The West Bengal Athletic Association noticed the exceptional talent of the two athlets and approached ESPN STAR Sports to support the athlelets' preparation for the upcoming Olympic Games. '' ''Evaluating their impressive track record in the past championships they have participated in, ''ESPN STAR Sports has obliged and accepted our proposal. We thank them for their support to the athletes and to our association.'' Pinky Pramanik could not attend the function as she was attending a camp in Bangalore. But Hari said, ''We are grateful to ESPN STAR Sports for sponsoring our training and equipment for our preparation for the Olympic Games. Every sportsperson requires modern gear, training and supervision to perform better in today's competitive fields of sports. With better facilities, equipment and guidance from the West Bengal Atheletic Association, we will surely put in our best efforts to make our sponsors, country and fans proud.'' Pinki has been one of the best upcoming atheletes in the country and is the first athlete from Bengal to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games, another gold in 2005 2nd Indoor Asian games and a silver in 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Hari Sankar Roy, a high jumper has also represented India at the Youth Commonwealth games, where he won a gold medal. Hari also won a silver medal in 2004 all Asian Athletic meet and is poised to do well for India at the Olympic in Beijing.

According to the programme, Hari will get a four week camp in Italy before participating in the Asian All Star Meet in Brunei, tjis will be followed by IAAF World Cup from 17 to 19 september at Athens, third National Athletic Circuit on 28 October at Chennai, 4th National Athletics Circuit on november two at Bangalore sand Nationa Interstate Athlectics Cnampionship from November 14 to 18 culminating with asian Games in Doha.

Pinky will also take part in the Brunei meet and then the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart from September nine to 10 and then in the Athens meet with Hari. She will also participate in the same tournaments in India as Hari before heading for Doha.

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