London mayor hands Olympic cauldron petals to India

London Mayor Boris Johnson Monday personallydelivered a memento, copper petals from the London Olympic and Paralympic Gamescauldron, to India's medal-winning athletes at a function here.
Every country which competed at the London Games was represented by a copperpetal on the cauldron designed by Thomas Heatherwick. The petals are now beingoffered to each country as a legacy of their sporting achievements, and will bedelivered around the globe before the end of the year.
In total, 204 Olympic petals and 164 Paralympic petals will be offered tocompeting nations.
Johnson Monday met V.K. Malhotra, acting president of the Indian OlympicAssociation, bronze medal winning boxer M.C. Mary Kom and silver medallist pistolshooter Vijay Kumar to present the petals at a ceremony hosted by the BritishHigh Commission.
"It's a wonderful honour for me to present these beautiful petals to Indiaas a fitting memento of the achievements of Indian athletes in London this summer,"Johnson said.
"The iconic, graceful Olympic cauldron is a potent symbol of the best ofBritish engineering and design, and represents exactly the sort of skills wehave to offer the rest of the world, in particular in emerging export marketssuch as India."
"As mayor, welcoming the world to our fantastic city for the Games was theexperience of a lifetime. It's a pleasure to be able to bring these petals toDelhi as a gift from London to thank India for being part of our unforgettablesummer," Johnson said.
India's petals were the third set to be presented. The first were handed overby Sebastian Coe, chairperson of the London Games organising committee, to theBritish Olympic Association, and the second to Brazil.
About 100 school children from Delhi took part in the handover ceremony.
The London mayor is on a five-day visit to India, accompanied by a delegationof top business people, to promote London as the destination of choice forinvestors and international trade. He will also visit Hyderabad and Mumbai.

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