Source: BudapestSun - The first ever Hungarian Parasport Athletes of the Year awards have been presented in Budapest.
The awards were given based upon a questionnaire handed out to 72 sports experts, including coaches and journalists.
Accolades to 12 athletes in four categories were presented by; Bob Price, President of the European Paralympic Committee, Tamás Deutsch, Minister of Youth and Sports, Pál Nádas, President of the Hungarian Paralympic Committee (MPB), and Attila Vitai, CEO of VRAM Távközlési Rt, the local subsidiary of UK-based mobile service provider Vodafone.
Organizers also unveiled the official Athens 2004 Paralympic Games’ logo and played the official Athens paralympics anthem - in English and Hungarian - for the first time.
The Para-sportswoman of the Year prize went to fencer Zsuzsana Krajnyák, with runners up track and field athlete Mária Orsós and swimmer Katalin Engelhardt.
The main men’s award went to track and field athlete Sándor Ponyori with swimmer Ervin Kovács and track and field athlete Zsolt Orsós the runners up.
The Parasports Team of the Year award went to the national goal-ball (a jingling bell ball game for the blind and partially-sighted) squad. Runners up were the women’s saber team and the men’s table tennis doubles pair.
A special Coach of the Year award went to goal-ball coach Róbert Páni, with runners up women’s fencing and saber coach György Felletár and men’s track and field coach József Hoffer.
Vodafone is the chief sponsor of the Hungarian paralympic team after signing a three-year sponsorship deal with the MPB in October. In September the company donated Ft3 million ($10,810).
Nádas said that thanks to this sponsorship the association was able to prepare for Athens 2004 .
"We can also expand the number of categories we are involved in," he said. So far Hungarian athletes have been most successful in swimming, fencing, judo and table tennis.
Nádas added the sponsorship had already been fruitful, producing a competitor for this year’s winter Paralympics. "Skier Sándor Navratyil is representing Hungary in Salt Lake City," he said.
Vitai said, "We consider Paralympic athletes equal to any other Olympic athletes. That’s why we would like to draw more attention to their excellent sports performances."
He said Hungarian parasport athletes showed their worth at the Sydney Olympics where they collected 23 medals; four gold, five silver and 14 bronze.
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14.02.2002