EMA wished NE Olympians and their coaches at the London game village and at the historic Lord Stadium-London
on the eve of opening ceremony.

27-July-2012, London:

Devendro and Shiva Thapa with EMA members at the village

A team of European Manipuri Association (EMA) visited London Olympic Game Village and the historic Lord Stadium yesterday, the 26 July, on the eve of the opening ceremony, to cheer up, and convey the best wishes gathered by EMA directly from its members and indirectly through face book campaign.

More than 1000 members in less than 3 days signed up the campaign- 'Support Our NE Olympians, 2012'

Collecting souvenirs, cards, T-shirts, from EMA members, good will and best wishes messages from around 500 people including from young children, and people from other ethnicities, EMA team first visited the office of the deputy chief de mission, Brigadier PMK Raja, at the game village. Chairperson of EMA, Bishwajit Okram handed over an all the best Card and some other souvenirs collected by EMA for the Indian Olympians to the deputy chief. EMA's senior most members Nilomani Singh presented EMA-T shirts to some of the atheletes from NE, and to the deputy chief de-mission, Brig.Raja.

Brig. Raja said "He was inspired by such Indian diasporas like European Manipuri Association; EMA took the pain to visit the game village all the way from different countries of Europe to motivate, encourage and cheer up our Olympians"

Olympian archers Bombyla , Deepika Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro with EMA members and Bombayla's parents at Lord Stadium

"Winning and bringing home medals are important, but the most important is that they are representing us, Indians, NE people, Manipur at their level best" said, EMA's Chairperson Bishwajit Okram to the deputy Chief de mission, Brig.PMK Raja.

The spirit of the Olympic was visible enough; the village atmosphere and the ceremony of red carpet welcoming each of the country participants literally lifted everyone's spirit of everyone present there. Very prominent among them were , 19 years old Manipuri boxer Laishram Devendra, and 20 years old Shiva Thapa from Assam, EMA team met at the village.

The chief boxing coach Shri Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu said," Devendra is a temperamental boxer, and promising star . Thapa is a cool and technical boxer who is also very promising. Both has lots of positive points to be happy about. They defeated their best rivals in India and the world."

Emotional Laishram Devendra said, "A son of a rural farmer from Yurembam, Manipur, is able to take part, representing India, in the London Olympic, was a dream I never thought of. But, my sheer determination of working hard and taking responsibility of my own career led me to come up to this stage"

"My main objective is to win medal and come home (to Manipur) paying tribute to my parents, my local club and people of Manipur as a whole"

"Manipuris are very talented in sports, they pick easily on sports, coaches like us, but we falter due to lack of discipline and determination in the mid ways. Out of 30 Manipuri boxers in his training camp once, only 7 including him managed to stay on" He continued.

EMA chairperson presenting and explaining a souvenir as a mark of Respect for taking care of NE olympians to the deputy chief de mission of India, Brig. Raja.

Deputy Chief of the mission, PMK Raja, was all praise for the players particularly from the North East and Manipur. He really hopes they will bring some medals for the country.

EMA members also visited, along with visiting Laishram Bombayla's parents, to the historic Lord Stadium where Bombyla was training. There , world number one, 18 year old, Deepika Kumari from Ranchi, Laishram Bombyla from Manipur and Chekrovolu Swuro from Nagaland were congratulated and extended best wishes by Info Secretary Laishram Tiken and Nongthombam Sumit.

Bomyla's chief coach Shri Limba Ram said " Bombyla is a promising archer. He expects better result this time"

EMA members wished all the best to all the Indian Olympians and their team met at the village, among them was former world boxing no. 1, Vijender Singh. One of the senior EMA members, Bishwajeet Elangbam discussed with Laishram Manglemba , secretary Manipur Olympic association that there is a need to engage the people of Manipur to get behind these athletes and at the same time request the government and sport bodies to disseminate the character and discipline which today had made them admirable Olympians.

EMA chairman also met the paramedics, physios and other staff who are helping the athlete round the clock and thank them for their unseen efforts for visible rewards of the Indian Olymmpians.

Due to different training schedules, EMA members could not personally meet all the athletes from the North East but left the messages and the cards at the game village office.

See the full photo gallery on this meet-up here.



Released by:
Tiken Laishram
Information Secretary,

European Manipuri Association
http://www.ema-europe.org
Email: ema_europe[AT]yahoo[DOT]com