Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Manavjit Singh are among the 15 shooters whose preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games would be fuelled by the Sahara India Pariwar.
After supporting cricket, hockey, wrestling, boxing and archery, the corporate giant announced its plans for the shooters and it means in total, 56 sportsmen and four federations would have their London Olympic preparation supported by Sahara.
Apart from Rathore and Manavjit, Gagan Narang, Samresh Jung and Ranjon Sodhi will also be among the beneficiaries.
Sahara also announced its sponsorship for the National Championship and a new shooting event called Champion of Champions.
This four-year tie-up provides graded system of sponsorship payment to each of the shooters depending on the performance and achievements which would be reviewed every year by the National Rifle Association of India.
"This would ensure that the noteworthy performance of a shooter not included in this tie-up pool also gets noticed, leading to additional stimulus for the shooter. However, a review for top five shooters would be done after two years only," the corporate group said in a statement. "The support to shooting is a part of our series and a commitment towards promoting all such sports at ground level and those which have potential to bring fame to the country. I'm confident that these young shooters will make our country proud, and will establish new standard of excellence as they have done in the past," Sahara group chairman Subrata Roy said.
NRAI president Digvijay Singh thanked Sahara for the gesture and hoped the boost would lead to better performance by the shooters.
"I'm sure this partnership with Sahara will see a more improved performance by the shooters at the national and international arena," he said.
