The Slovenian National Paralympic Committee's partnership with Lidl has been recognised ©Lidl

The Slovenian National Paralympic Committee (NPC) and Lidl Slovenia have received an award which recognises their campaign to raise awareness of Para-athletes in the country.

Their project, entitled "Together in battle: Paralympic athletes and Lidl Slovenia!", was named as the winner of the Sporto Sponsorship Award.

Sporto is the leading annual regional Sports Marketing and Sponsorship Conference which looks at international and contemporary issues concerning sports marketing and sponsorship.

The event also features expert lectures and discussions, with this year’s conference taking place in Portoroz.

The Sporto Sponsorship Award was presented by the Slovenian Marketing Association.

"This is a great honour for the National Paralympic Committee for Slovenia and our partner Lidl Slovenija," said Drago Perko, a public relations representative from NPC Slovenia.

"Among other things the jury said that the sponsorship was designed corporately and linked to the business objectives of the company, and the derivation of it was extremely sophisticated.

"They appreciated the consistency and the overall integration of campaigns and communications, and at the same time they stressed that they saw added value in raising awareness about disabled athletes."

A photo exhibition was set up before Rio 2016 as part of the collaboration ©NPC Slovenia
A photo exhibition was set up before Rio 2016 as part of the collaboration ©NPC Slovenia

The two organisations partnered in February, with supermarket chain Lidl Slovenia claiming they had chosen to work with the NPC due to the "great inspiration that Slovenian Paralympians are to the society around them, combined with outstanding sport results".

As part of the project, they set up an photo exhibition of athletes called "Energy of Inspiration" at the Arboretum Volcji in Ljubljana.

The exhibition was established prior to the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, where Slovenia earned two medals.

They both came in the same event with shooter Veselka Pevec claiming gold and Gorazd Tirsek silver in the mixed 10 metres air rifle standing SH2 event.