Success for Sangina

A beauty pageant contestant may owe her success to a fairness cream, but can the same be said of an Olympic athlete? That’s what will happen if Sangina Vaidya, the first Nepalese athlete to participate in the Olympics officially, wins a medal in Athens next month.

Fair and Lovely, Indian corporate house Hindustan Lever’s fairness cream, is promoting Nepalese taekwondo diva Sangina, a two-time gold medallist at the South Asian Federation Games.

Along with five more corporate houses, Nepal Lever, the group’s joint venture in Nepal, is co-sponsoring the 29-year-old.

Together, the six corporate houses are providing 85 percent of Sangina’s expenses like visa fees, airfares, medical treatments, sports gear, a daily allowance and an endowment fund.

This is the first time that private companies in Nepal have chipped in to sponsor any contestant in an international sporting event.

But then Sangina is one of the best brand ambassadors in the country by virtue of being the first Nepalese to formally qualify for the Olympics.

Till now, Nepal’s participation in the prestigious games was confined to events like swimming, shooting and athletics, which allow wildcard participants.

Sangina, who grew up watching Bruce Lee movies and played football as well, began to concentrate on taekwondo when she realised there wasn’t enough time for both.

Four years ago, she had set her heart on participating in the 2000 Olympics.

The corporate support she received this time enabled her to head for Korea to train for a month. She leaves for Athens August 15. — IANS