Hope floats: Disabled youth aims to enter record books

Twenty-six-year-old Prakash Nadar swam for 12 hours under the scorching sun just so that the world would sit up and take notice — not of his feat but of the fact that he and five of his disabled contemporaries may not make it to the Busan Games because they have no sponsors.

Nadar and five other sportsmen — Vilas More, Satyaprakash Tiwari, Harish Bist, Manoj Khaire and Suryakant Mahadik — have been selected to represent India at the 8th Far Eastern South Pacific Games for the Disabled (FESPIC) Asian Games at Busan. The events start from October 23, 2002 and they are still waiting for sponsors.

‘‘We have not received any assistance from the government. We approached so many corporates, but everybody turned us down,’’ said Ramesh Naik, president of the Sports Federation of India for the Disabled (SFID) and manager of the team. The cost for the Busan Games comes up to Rs 73,500 a player.