Asian Indoor Games – Sandeep Sejwal wins another Silver medal on Day 2

Sandeep Sejwal continued his good run at the games by winning his second silver medal of the meet in the 50m Breaststroke. Sandeep missed the gold by 0.06 of a second; his reaction time, at the start, was 0.03 of a second slower than that of the winner's, so in absolute terms Sandeep was just 0.03 seconds slower. Sandeep may have won if he just had slightly longer finger nails, hmmm…

The other Indians in the fray did well for themselves but were not able to make it on the podium.

The results:

50m Breaststroke (Men) - Iran’s Dizicheh Mohammad Alirezaei finished first with a time of 28.35. India’s Sandeep Sejwal finished second with a time of 28.41. Thailand’s Vorrawuti Aumpiwan finished third with a time of 28.49.

The meet record is in the name of Vladislav Polyakov of Kazakhstan with a time 27.74 set in 2005.

The World Record is in the name of Oleg Lisogor of Ukraine with a time of 26.17 set in 2006.

50m Backstroke (Women) - Hong Kong’s Hiu Wai Sherry Tsai won the gold with a new record time of 28.08. Kazakhstan’s Anastassiya Prilepa won the silver with a time of 28.97. Hong Kong’s Hoi Shun Stephanie Au won the bronze with a time of 29.00.

Shikha Tandon finished 7^th with a time of 30.50.

The World Record is in the name of Hui Li of China with a time of 26.83 set in 2001.

50m Backstroke (Men) - China’s Yi Lin touched out the record holder to finish first with a time of 25.91. Kazakhstan’s Stanislav Ossinskiy touched second with a time of 25.96. Hong Kong’s Geoffrey Robin Cheah touched third with a time of 25.97.

The meet record is in the name of Stanislav Ossinskiy of Kazakhstan with a time of 25.50.

The World Record is in the name of Thomas Rupprath of Germany with a time of 23.27 set in 2004.

100m Butterfly (Women) - Hong Kong’s Hannah Jane Arnett Wilson and Hang Yu Sze finished first and second with time of 1:00.06 and 1:00.26, both the times were faster than the previous record. Thailand’s Natnapa Prommuenwai finished third with a time of 1:02.00.

Richa Mishra narrowly missed the finals, she finished 9^th in the event with a time of 1:04.70.

The World Record is in the name of Lisbeth Lenton of Australia with a time of 55.95 set in 2006.

100m Butterfly (Men) - China’s Jiawei Zhou won the gold with a new meet record time of 51.91. Macau’s Wing Cheung Victor Wong won the silver with a time of 52.78. Kazakhstan’s Rustam Khudiyev won the bronze with a time of 53.33.

Rehan Poncha finished 8^th with a time of 56.00.

The World Record is in the name of Ian Crocker of USA with a time of 49.07 set in 2004.

Day 3 Preview:

Look out for Rehan Poncha – 200m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke, Shikha Tandon – 100m Backstroke and Richa Mishra – 200m Freestyle.

Note: All timings have been clocked in a Short course pool.

Asian Indoor Games – Sandeep Sejwal wins Silver on Day 1

Sandeep Sejwal gave the Indians something to cheer about on the first day of the swimming events. He swam an amazing race to win India’s first medal, a silver, in the pool. The other Indian swimmers – Shikha Tandon, Rehan Poncha and Richa Mishra – also had some good swims finishing fifth in their respective events.

The results:

50m Freestyle (Women) – China’s Binan Wu came first with a time of 25.68 missing the record by 0.01sec. Hong Kong’s Hang Yu Sze, who holds the record, had to be content with the Silver this time around with a time of 25.75. Korea’s Jae Young Lee finished a third with a time of 25.77.

Shikha Tandon who was the lone Indian in the finals swam well to finish a credible 5^th with a time of 26.22, which was 0.54 slower than the Gold medal time. Earlier in the day Richa Mishra swam a time of 28.32 in the heats.

The meet record is in the name of Hang Yu Sze of Hong Kong with a time of 25.67 set in 2005.

The World Record is in the name of Therese Alshammar of Sweden with a time of 23.59 set in 2000.

50m Freestyle (Men) – Thailand’s Arwut Chinnapasaen finished first with a new record time of 22.81. China’s Yu Liu and Yujun Li, who finished second and third, also bettered the previous record clocking 22.86 and 22.88 respectively.

The World Record is in the name of Roland Schoeman of South Africa with a time of 20.98 set in 2006.

100m Breaststroke (Women) – Korea’s Suyoung Lim won the event with a new record time of 1:09.79. China’s Shuyuwan Liu and Jingwen Tan finished second and third with a time of 1:10.78 and 1:10.80 respectively.

The World Record is in the name of Leisel Jones of Australia with a time of 1:03.90 set in 2006.

100m Breaststroke (Men) – Chinese Taipei’s Wei Wen Wang came in first with a time of 1:01.78. India’s Sandeep Sejwal came in a close second with a time of 1:01.99. Kazakhstan’s Yevgeniy Ryzhkov came in third with a time of 1:02.07.

The meet record is in the name of Vladislav Polyakov of Kazakhstan with a time of 59.00 set in 2005.

The World Record is in the name of Ed Moses of USA with a time of 57.47 set in 2002.

200m Individual Medley (Women) – Hong Kong’s Hiu Wai Sherry Tsai finished first with a new record time of 2:13.95. Thailand’s Natthanan Junkrajang finished second with a time of 2:17.82. Korea’s Soo Jung Lee finished third with a time of 2:17.98.

Richa Mishra finished a credible 5^th with a time of 2:22.55.

The World Record is in the name of Allison Wagner of USA with a time of 2:07.80 set in 2007.

200m Individual Medley (Men) – Thailand’s Radomyos Matjiur won the event with a new record time of 2:01.35. Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Gordiyenko and Artur Dilman, who finished second and third, also bettered the previous record, which was held by the former, clocking 2:02.66 and 2:03.18.

Rehan Poncha finished a credible 5^th with a time of 2:04.23. Rehan who was seeded second in the finals may have paid for going out fast in the heats.

The World Record is in the name of Ryan Lochte of USA with a time of 1:53.30.

Day 2 preview:

Again all the Indian swimmers will be in action. Sandeep Sejwal – 50m Breaststroke, Shikha Tandon – 50m Backstroke, Richa Mishra – 100m Butterfly and Rehan Poncha – 100m Butterfly.

Note: All timings have been clocked in a Short course pool.

Asian Indoor Games – Preview to Day 1

The swimming events begin tomorrow and all the Indian swimmers will be seen in action on the first day. Shikha Tandon – 50m Freestyle, Sandeep Sejwal – 100m Breaststroke, Richa Mishra – 50m Freestyle & 200m Individual Medley and Rehan Poncha – 200m Individual medley.

Go India Go!!

Japan, which is among the top swimming nations in the world, has surprisingly not fielded a single swimmer in the competition. The starting list also indicates that China and Korea, the other two big countries in Asian swimming, have not sent their best team.

Come back tomorrow for the results and analysis on how the Indian swimmers fared on Day 1.

2nd Asian Indoor Games 2007 – Macau

The Indian swim team is all set to leave for the 2nd Asian Indoor Games to be held from October 26th – November 3rd 2007 in Macau. The swimming events begin on the October 30th and end on November 2nd. Click here to access the official website.

Considering the performances over the last few months, the Indian team – comprising of Sandeep Sejwal, Rehan Poncha, Shikha Tandon and Richa Mishra – would be raring to make a mark at this meet. Virdhawal Khade who has just begun his training after completing his 10th Standard Board exams (supplementary) on October 18th has opted out of the event so that he can concentrate on his training.

These games will give the swimmers good racing experience in a non-stressful environment (as it is not an Olympic Qualifying event). The first edition in 2005, held in Bangkok, saw Arjun Muralidharan win a silver medal in the 200m Butterfly and Shikha Tandon win a bronze medal in the 100m Backstroke.

The games will feature only Short course swimming i.e. races will be held in a 25m pool. Short course races always have faster times compared to Long course races as the swimmers are able take advantage off the walls.

With the Asian Indoor Games yet to gain in stature it would be interesting to see if countries like China, Japan and Korea send their best teams. All said and done, the Indian team has everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Go India Go!!

First World Record in Indian waters!!!

I had expected the Military World Games at Hyderabad to be a fast meet, but the creation of a World Record definitely beat it.

Li Yang of China became the first person to create a World Record in Indian waters when she won the 50m Backstroke event. Her time of 28.09sec was faster than that of American Leila Vaziri’s time of 28.16sec set at the World Swimming Championships in Melbourne earlier this year.

The time though would have to be ratified by FINA before it becomes official.

For the moment, Indian’s can take heart with the fact that World Records can be created in Indian waters and it is a matter of time before one is created by an Indian.

World Military Games - 2007

One of the fastest swim meets on Indian soil began yesterday as part of the 2007 Military World Games at Hyderabad. Ironically, due to the high level of security needed to protect the participants not many civilians will get to witness the world class swimming on display.

Click here to get the results.

Note: The Indian Military team does not consist of any women.

Point to ponder:
On the one hand the Indian Military has the best sporting infrastructure at its disposal, great reach at the grass-root level and no dearth of money, above all it has no interference from the Federations or the Government, and on the other hand India has no dearth of talent; the obvious question that follows is: Why is the Indian Military failing to churn out World class athletes?

Swapnali Yadav – Youngest Marathon Swimmer in the World

With Indian swimming slowly making its presence felt on the world map why should I not make my contribution, even if it is for only being the youngest? Wonder if this was the thought that motivated Swapnali Yadav, the 8 year old from Mumbai, to participate and successfully complete the 19th International Swim across the Gulf Of Mesiniakos from Koroni-Kalamata, a distance of 30km, in 11 hours 10 minutes. The next youngest competitor was 22yrs old. Click here for the full results.

Swimming a distance of 30km, at any age, is no mean feat and Swapnali has to be applauded for it. The very thought of how she must have trained for it is scary especially at such a tender age. I guess that is the reason why some international observers are calling for a minimum-age to be set for such swims to safe-guard kids from being pushed to such lengths too early. There are very few doctors who deal with athletes and even fewer who deal with extreme athletes, so it will be difficult to get a balanced view on how such extreme events would affect the child in the long run. Should she be encouraged or stopped till she is old enough? Tough call to make and I’m sure the debate on this shall continue.

Her next target is to become the youngest to swim across the legendary English Channel. For this she would need a lot of good warm wishes as she would have to deal with more than just the rough icy-cold waters as her age is again going to be the point of contention. The record books indicate that the youngest swimmer to cross the channel is Thomas Gregory at the age of 11yrs and 330days. Mihir Sen, a long distance swimming legend, was the first Indian to swim across the channel in 1958. Click here for more information.

With such a large head start, I wonder how soon would it be before she surpasses Bula Chowdhury’s* records. Only time and tide will tell.

Check the links below to get the FINA rules related to Open Water Swimming.
Click here for the FINA Rules and Regulations for Open Water Swimming Grand Prix 2007.

Click here for the Rules and Regulations for FINA 10km Marathon Swimming World Cup 2007.

* Click here to read a news article on Bula Chowdhury.

Ladder to Beijing

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