India bags four medals in Special Winter Olympics

For a country basking in the glory of Beijing Olympics success, there are more reasons to cheer as India won four medals, including a gold, in the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Idaho, US.
    
Paras Bhatia bagged gold in Snowboarding while Brajesh and Kaushal Manek clinched the silver medal in the same event of the Games that will conclude on Saturday.

Reena bagged the bronze in the  Alpine Skiing category and became the lone girl from India to win a medal at the event, Special Olympics Bharat (SOB) sports director K Kumar said.

A total of 75 students represented India at the Games which had a total participation of 97 countries, including China, the US and Britain.

Bhatia (19) of capital's Ashok Vihar area is speech-impaired like Manek, also 19, of Rohill in North Delhi.
    
For Brajesh and Reena, it was a Slumdog Millionaire fortune as the duo hails from a South Delhi slum.

Both Brajesh (15) of Sanjay Colony and Reena (18) of the same locality are deaf and dumb.
    
For Deepalaya, an NGO at Sagarpur near Janakpuri here, it was proud moments as two of its students selected by the SOB won medals.

"Our efforts have been paid dividends. And it's cent percentage," the NGO's chief executive TK Mathew said.

"It was something amazing that the students from the tropical country excelled to win medals," he added.
    
The SOB is the Indian wing of Special Olympics International, a world-wide NGO network taking care of special students.
    
The Indian contingent was given a ten-day training in Manali in Himachal Pradesh ahead of the Games which included events like alpine skiing, cross country skiing, figure skating, floor hockey, snowshoeing and speed skating.