The Pride Of Honvéd
Szöveg: Renáta Révész | 2008. szeptember 22. 7:09The number of Olympians per square metre was quite high in Stefánia Palace this Thursday. The finest of Honvéd Sports Association of Budapest (BHSE) have gathered to receive their well-deserved acknowledgement from Imre Szekeres, following their return from the Beijing Olympics. Moreover, the Defence Minister himself earned a round of applause as well when he announced that next year the ministry will provide a further HUF 70 million for the funding of BHSE.
Although the 2008 Olympic Games caused a lot of difficulties for the Hungarian athletes, BHSE has every reason to be proud: from the Olympic team of 170, there were 21 Honvéd athletes – the highest number among all the other associations. Supporters had a chance to see 21 contestants in 6 games, and 15 of these people earned Olympic rankings or points. These numbers, the data speak for themselves. Neither did Imre Szekeres spare his words of praise when awarding ministerial acknowledgements to Honvéd athletes, trainers, experts.
However, the Minister of Defence had another important announcement for the day, in addition to the awards: it is a known fact that since 2006, the Ministry of Defence has supported BHSE with HUF 90 million every year. This amount will considerably increase next year – the Ministry will raise the financing of the association to HUF 160 million.
"It is my pleasure to announce that we have found another professional point of cooperation," carried on the Minister, when the applause that broke out after his announcement has ceased. "At the moment, we are engaged in negotiations about setting up an off-road rally branch within the association, with the purpose of developing the capacities of all-terrain vehicle drivers."
The Minister highlighted that the Ministry of Defence will make efforts in the future, too, to support so-called military sports, such as fencing, pentathlon, sport shooting, judo, or even off-road rally.
At the ceremony, awards were granted to:
István Gergely (water polo), Dr. Gergely Kiss (water polo), Dr. Tamás Molnár (water polo), Dr. Patrícia Horváth (water polo), Anett Györe (water polo), Dóra Kisteleki (water polo), Edina Knapek (fencing), Gabriella Knapek (fencing), Gábor Boczkó (fencing), Géza Imre (fencing), Dr. Krisztián Kulcsár (fencing), Ákos Vereckei (kayak), István Beé (kayak), Dániel Hadfi (judo), Emese Szász (fencing), Anikó Hódi (BMX), 1st Lieutenant Zoltán Kõvágó (athletics), Gábor Balogh (pentathlon), Györgyi Farkas (heptathlon), Mihály Sáfrán (kayak/canoe), Zoltán Bakó (coach, kayak-canoe), Péter Toncs (coach, judo), Gyõzõ Kulcsár (coach, fencing), Gábor Udvarhelyi (coach, fencing), Zoltán Bernár (coach, fencing), Dr. Zoltán Szenes (President, BHSE Board of Directors), Imre Molnár (Executive President, BHSE), István Kovács (coach, water polo), Imre Tóth (coach, water polo), Lajos Györe (coach, water polo), Ferenc Novák (Director, Water Polo Branch), Gábor Horváth (Director, Kayak/Canoe Branch), Attila Bodrogi (Director, Judo Branch), Lieutenant Colonel (Eng.) Béla Gyõr.
