Sub-Junior Nationals 2009

The 26th Sub-Junior Nationals were held at Panaji, Goa from 26th-30th May 2009.

Best Swimmers:
Boys group III (11-12yrs) - Supriya Mondol (Bengal)
Boys group IV (10 and under) - Aditya Ghosh (Maharashtra)

Girls group III (11-12 yrs) - Sherlyn Devadason (Tamilnadu)
Girls group IV (10 and under) - Damini K. Gowda (Karnataka)


Click here for all the results (courtesy PDAAA).

Teams for Asian Youth championship and World Championships

(The article appeared in The Hindu on June 10th, 2009, click here)

The Indian swimming camp for the Asian Youth championship, scheduled to be held in Singapore from June 29, is in full swing at Bangalore and according to Chief National coach S. Pradeep Kumar, the Indian squad will strive to return home with a few medals.

“The meet is important for us as the swimmers would aim not only for medals but also for good qualifying times for the World Youth championship,” said the coach. The Swimming Federation of India will also send a team for the FINA World championship scheduled to be held in Rome next month.

The teams: Asian Youth championship: Boys: A.P. Gagan, Aaron D’Souza, Aditya Roshan, Akash Rohit and Jasamdeep. Girls: Pratima Kollali, Arhata Magavi, Talasha Prabhu and T. Sneha.

World championship: Men: Virdhawal Khade, Sandeep Sejwal, J.P. Arjun, Ashwin Menon, Mandar Divase, J. Agnishwar and Praveen Tokas. Women: Faria Zaman, Talasha Prabhu, Vempa, Shubha Chittaranjan, Pooja R. Alva and Vandita Dharia.

Virdhawal Khade, Sandeep Sejwal and J. Agnishwar head to Europe

Virdhawal Khade, Sandeep Sejwal and J. Agnishwar along with their coach Nihar Ameen left for Europe last week. They are scheduled to train and compete in the region in lead up to the World Swimming Championships at Rome, Italy in July this year.

The tentative schedule will be as follows:
* Altitude Training, Sierra Nevada, Spain
* Competition: Mare Nostrum, Barcelona, Spain
* Bio-mechanic Analysis, Bordeaux, France
* Competition: French Open Swimming Championships, Paris, France
* LSB Sports and Conference Center , Frankfurt, Germany
* Competition: FINA World Swimming Championships, Rome, Italy

Look out for more updates as the swimmers begin competing.

Swimmers to train in South Africa

(The article appeared in The Hindu on March 1st, 2009, click here)

A 35-member Indian swimming contingent, comprising 20 boys and 15 girls, will leave for South Africa on March 1 to train at the High Performance Training Centre in the University of Pretoria campus.

The squad will be accompanied by three coaches, including the chief National coach S. Pradeep Kumar. The South African training stint will last a month.

The swimmers have been training for the past 50 days at the SAI (South) Centre pool in Kengeri, near here, for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. As many as 78 swimmers were called for the camp, but only 61 reported. Many had to skip the camp due to exams.

Top swimmers, including Virdhawal Khade, Sandeep Sejwal and Rehan Poncha, however, preferred to train at their respective clubs after making a token appearance at the camp.

Beneficial

“It was not compulsory to attend the camp, but those who did have benefited from it,” said Pradeep. “The camp’s focus was mainly on physical conditioning. In South Africa, the swimmers would undergo further evaluation so that we can work on their specific needs before going into stroke correction and speed work,” added Pradeep.

The camp at SAI winds up on Saturday. Though the team had received the green signal, there was some anxiety about timely release of funds for the trip. Pradeep, however, confirmed on Friday that this has been made and the team is all set to leave as scheduled.

The team:

Boys: K. Rajeev, Anoop Augustine, Praveen Tokas, Rushab Pawar, Aditya Sangvekar, Sourabh Sangvekar, Akash Rohit, Aditya Roshan, Sibnath, Sumanthanath, Pulkit Kumar, Sunil, Diwakar, Gopinath Kayal, Mandar Divase, J.P. Arjun, Rahul Choksi, Anshul Kothari, Rohit Kumar and Anjani Kumar.

Girls: Pooja Alva, Shubha, Kshipra Mahajan, Richa Mishra, Amreen Mallik, Fariha Zaman, Talasha Prabhu, Pratima Kollali, Sreelaksmi Gorut, Shilpa Naifu, Vandita Dharial, Sneha, Bhoomi Motwani, Aditi Malavika and Gulnaz Rawoof.

Coaches: Pradeep Kumar, Satish Suri and Biswajith Dey Chowdhury.

Recap 2008

Indian Swim Team @ Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
L-R: Sandeep Sejwal, Ankur Poseria, Virdhawal Khade, Rehan Poncha and Nihar Ameen (Coach)

2008 was a historic year for Indian swimming. Some of the highlights are as follows:

• For the first time four swimmers - Virdhawal Khade, Sandeep Sejwal, Rehan Poncha and Ankur Poseria - represented India the Olympic Games.
  
• First time an Indian Breaststroke swimmer qualified for an Olympic Games. Sandeep Sejwal qualified in both the 100 and 200m Breaststroke.
• First time an Indian swimmer swam three events at an Olympic Games. Virdhawal Khade swam the 50, 100 and 200m Freestyle.
  
• First time an Indian swimmer swam under 50 sec in the 100m Freestyle and 1min 50sec in the 200m Freestyle. This was achieved by Virdhawal Khade at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune.
• First time India won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games. Virdhawal Khade finished as the most decorated athlete of the games winning 3 Gold and 3 Silver medals. India got its highest tally - 3Gold, 3Silver and 1 Bronze.
• First time two Indian swimmers - Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal - broke into the top 150 of the FINA World rankings, that too in multiple events. Virdhawal Khade ended the year 2008 ranked no. 64 in the 50m Butterfly, no. 81 in the 100m Freestyle and no. 109 in the 50m Freestyle. Virdhawal is also the youngest in the top 100 in both the 50m Butterfly and the 100m Freestyle. Sandeep on the other hand ranked No. 97 in the 100m Breaststroke and no. 103 in the 200m Breaststroke. These are all the more creditable considering that it was the Olympic year where timings are considerably faster.
• First time an Indian swimmer made it to the finals at the World Youth Swimming Championships. It was also the first time that India got on the points board at a swimming meet of this level. Virdhawal was the sole point earner as he finished 5th, 7th and 6th in the 50, 100 and 200m Freestyle. In each of these events he missed a medal by a hair's breadth.
  

India has finally made its presence felt on the world stage with some excellent performances. The year ahead is crucial as the swimmers prepare to make a mark at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

Go India Go!!

Senior National Swimming Championships 2008

The 2008 Senior National Swimming Championships was held at the Gachibowli swimming pool in Hyderabad from 5-10 November 2008. The swimmers conspicuous with their absence were - Virdhawal Khade, Sandeep Sejwal (both were catching up with their studies) and Shikha Tandon (who was forced to sit out due to an injury).

Rehan Poncha and Richa Mishra stamped their domination winning the title of the best male and female swimmers. They each won their respective five events.

Mandar Divase was the only swimmer to create National records - 800m Freestyle (8:31.61sec) and 1500m Freestyle (16:17.07sec).

The performances in general were good considering that this meet came at the end of a long and hard Olympic year.

Click here to get all the results (courtesy Pune District Amateur Aquatic Association).

Indians @ the Commonwealth Youth Games – Virdhawal rules the pool

The swimming pool turned out to be the most happening place at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, which played host to the Commonwealth Youth Games from 12-18 October 2008, thanks to the exploits of Virdhawal Khade who captured the imagination of everyone present. No one wanted to miss the chance to watch history in the making where Australian and British swimmers were left in the wake of an Indian swimmer. With each gold Virdhawal won the voices singing the National Anthem during the victory ceremony kept getting louder making every Indian proud.

At the Commonwealth Youth Games the participants have to be 18yrs and under to participate. Virdhawal, who turned 17 in the end of August, had a tough schedule as he had to swim eight events (5 Individual and 3 Relays) over a span of just 3 days. He went on to finish the meet becoming the most decorated athlete of the Games winning three gold medals, w/ new meet records, and two silver medals out of his five individual events. In the two events where Virdhawal won silver he got touched out by Australian swimmers a year older to him. He also helped the Indian 4*100m Freestyle relay team win a silver medal. Four new national records were rewritten at the Games. His results were as follows:

50m Freestyle – 22.68sec Gold (New meet and National record)

100m Freestyle – 49.47sec Gold (New meet and National record)

200m Freestyle – 1min 49.86sec Silver (New National record)

50m Butterfly – 24.25sec Gold (New meet and National record)

100m Butterfly – 54.01sec Silver (Personal best)

Check the following to get a sense of the quality of swims:

• In the 100m Freestyle, Virdhawal swam over half a second faster than the World Youth Swimming Championship Record, which was set in Mexico in July this year, and would feature second to only Ian Thorpe in the 18yrs and under category in the Australian All-time ranking.
• Virdhawal's timings are quicker than Eamon Sullivan's timings when Eamon was 18yrs old. Sullivan (now 23yrs old) is from Australia and is the current world record holder in the 50m and 100m Freestyle.
• First Indian to break into the top 150 FINA World Rankings in 2008. Achieved it in three events this year. Ranked No. 57 in the 50m Butterfly, No. 79 in the 100m Freestyle and No. 105 in the 50m Freestyle per the FINA World Swimming Rankings 2008 (last updated on 15-Oct-08). In the 50m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle Virdhawal is the youngest in the top 100.
• Amongst the fastest in Asia. His times in the 50m and 100m Freestyle would have fetched him silver medals at the Doha 2006 Asian Games.
  
• First person from the Indian sub-continent to swim under 50sec in the 100m Freestyle and 1min 50sec in the 200m Freestyle.
  

For those who missed all the action, here is a glimpse.

Virdhawal winning gold in the 50m Freestyle Finals

Virdhawal winning gold in the 100m Freestyle Finals

The only other Indian swimmer to win a medal was 16-year-old Aaron D’souza. Despite racing with boys a couple of years older to him he went on to win a bronze medal in the 200m Butterfly. Aaron came close to winning a medal on three other occasions; he finished 4^th in the 100m Freestyle and 5^th in the 100m Butterfly and 200m Freestyle. Aaron’s biggest improvements came in the freestyle events. His results are as follows:

50m Butterfly – 25.93sec

100m Butterfly – 56.60sec 5^th

200m Butterfly – 2min 03.43sec Bronze

100m Freestyle – 51.52sec 4^th

200m Freestyle – 1min 53.22sec 5^th

18-year-old J. Agnishwar made it to the finals in all the events he swam. He finished 4^th in the 200m IM, 6^th in the 50 and 200m Breaststroke and 8^th in the 100m Breaststroke. He swam personal bests in all his events.

In comparison, the performance from the girls was disappointing and the only ones to make the finals were: Pooja Alva (6^th and 8^th in the 100 and 200m Butterfly respectively), Fariha Zaman (7^th in the 50m Backstroke) and Arahata Magavi (8^th in the 50m Butterfly).

The Indian team consisted of:

Boys: Virdhawal Khade, Aaron D’Souza, N.A. Sandeep, Nishit Shah, Praveen Tokas, Ashwin Menon, J.P. Agnishwar, Jashan Deep Singh, Aditya Sangvekar and A.P. Gagan.

Girls: Fariah Zaman, Arhatha Magavi, Pooja R. Alva, Talasha Prabhu, Kshipra Mahajan, Heta Dave, M.M. Venbha, Aarti Ghorpade, Lekha Kamath, Poorva Shetty and Krunal Bhosale.

Click here to get the entire results.