Indians @ 2008 Zoggs Queensland Sprint Championships

Over the weekend an Indian contingent consisting of Virdhawal Khade (Veer), Sandeep Sejwal and Shikha Tandon - who are currently in Australia on a three month training stint - took part in their first competition in Australia - 2008 Zoggs Queensland Sprint Championships in Brisbane (9/Feb/2008 to 10/Feb/2008). This meet consisted of only 50m events of all the strokes for the following age-groups:
9yrs, 10yrs, 11yrs, 12yrs, 13yrs, 14yrs, 15yrs, 16yrs, 17/18yrs & Open

This is one of the many preparatory weekend meets they be swimming in lead up to the two Olympic qualifying meets - 2008 Telstra Australian Swimming Championships (at Sydney in the end of March; this meet is also the Australian Olympic trials) and 2008 Telstra Grand Prix 1 (at Canberra in the end of April)

On Day 1, Veer and Sandeep won a gold medal each in the 50m Butterfly (16yrs) and 50m Breaststroke (Open) with a time of 25.75sec and 30.16sec respectively. Shikha finished 11th in the 50m Backstroke semi-final with a time 32.68sec.

On Day 2, Veer continued to show good form winning two bronze medals. This is taking into consideration that he had to race eight times (as each Open event had Prelims, Semi-finals and Finals and Age-group event had Prelims and Finals).

Veer's first bronze medal came in the 50m Butterfly (Open) with a time of 25.83 and his second bronze medal came in the 50m Freestyle (16yrs) with a time of 24.08. Veer finished 5th in finals of the 50m Freestyle (Open).

Shikha finished 4th in finals of the 50m Freestyle (Open) with a time of 27.30sec and 13th in the semi-final of the 50m Butterfly (Open) with a time of 30.71sec.

Note: The times are not indicative of their current standards as Veer, Sandeep and Shikha are in the middle of high volume endurance training and they did not rest for this meet.

Click here for the full results.

Click here for the photos.

Senate Royal 4th National Masters Aquatic Championships - 2007

The National Masters meet turned out to be as I had hoped for, full of fun and good experiences. The swimming events of the National Masters Aquatic Championships were held at the Andheri Sports complex and were very well organized by the Greater Mumbai Amateur Aquatic Association (GMAAA). Considering that there were 650 swimmers from all over the country participating, the organizers did a great job of ensuring that the events were conducted smoothly.

It was quite a nostalgic experience for me as it was at the same pool that I swam my last Senior Nationals in December 1999 winning the National title in the 100 and 200m Freestyle. It felt great coming back to the same venue after 8 years to swim another National in a different league and reclaiming the 100 and 200m Freestyle. I finished this meet with three individual gold medals – 100, 200 and 400m Freestyle – and one gold and one silver medal in the 4*50 Freestyle and Medley relays respectively.

This meet dwarfed ex-professional swimmers like me and highlighted the human triumphs in the sport that we often miss in the more competitive professional circuit. In many ways, the Masters Age-group meet is exactly the opposite when compared with the regular age group. I have listed a few:

• In the latter, the parents cheer and pamper their kids while in the former the kids, and a few grand kids, were seen cheering and pampering their parents and grandparents.
• In the latter the times get faster as we go up the age groups while in the former the times get slower.
• In the latter the priority is winning first and fun next while in the former it is fun first and winning next.

Mr. Krishnamurthy, the Nonagenarian (90yrs+) from Karnataka, was one of the stars who stood as a shining example that one is never be too old to compete. Taranath Shenoy, one of the legends of long distance swimming who is visually challenged and has been awarded the prestigious Padmashree, was another star who displayed his swimming prowess by creating multiple records. As a kid, I had heard a lot about Taranath Shenoy and it was my pleasure meeting him and having the honor of awarding him a medal for one of his events. Taranath was among a handful of physically challenged swimmers who participated shoulder to shoulder with the able bodied and showed that they were a force to be reckoned with.

Overall it was fantastic experience and I look forward to the next Masters Nationals. For those who swam faster than the FINA World Masters qualifying time, and can afford to fund their own trip, the next stop is the FINA World Masters at Perth (Australia) in April this year (Check earlier blog post for the handbook on the World Masters).

Click here for the results of the individual events.

Masters swimming - Karnataka state meet 2007

The Karnataka Masters State Meet was held at the Vijaynagar Swimming Pool on the 15th and 16th of December 2007.

This was the first time that I was participating in the Masters circuit, which is usually considered to be a meet for recreational swimmers, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The competition is only an excuse for swimmers from all walks of life to get together and test themselves. There were swimmers, both men and women, of all age-groups. The oldest competitor was Mr. Krishnamurthy who was 90yrs young and a great inspiration to all those who thought they were too old to swim or compete.

For me, it was a great opportunity to test where I stood after almost seven years. It was like starting swimming all over again. Firstly, I was in the youngest age group – 25-29yrs, and secondly, my times were comparable with what I clocked when I was 10-12yrs old :-D.

I am looking forward to the Nationals that are going to be held on the 29^th and 30^th of this month at Mumbai. If the state meet was any indication of what to expect at the Nationals I am sure to have a lot of fun and make many new friends.

Masters Swimming

The IV National Masters' Swimming Championship is to be held in Mumbai on December 29 and 30, 2007.

The selection for the Karnataka team will be held in Bangalore on December 15 and 16, 2007 at the Corporation Swimming pool, Vijaynagar.

Even though it is quite cold to swim in Bangalore, I have heard that there are many brave souls training hard in preparation for this meet. Personally it has been difficult to get to the pool, but I am looking forward to racing over this weekend as I am sure it is going to be a lot of fun :-)

I got to know about the Masters meet only on December 2nd and that too by chance. Over the last week I tried to dig for more information about the event, over the internet, but I have not been too successful. Hence I have made an attempt to share whatever information I am able to find on International Masters swimming with the hope that the same applies here.The different age-groups for men and women are as follows:
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
70-74
75-79
80-84
85-89
90-94
95-99
100-104
and you thought you are too old to compete???

Click here for the World records in these events.

Click here for the 2008 FINA World Masters Championship Official Handbook.

Click here to get info straight from FINA

Cleaning up murky waters ...

Many professional sportspersons in India are not aware of what constitutes doping. In the Indian context, where the blind are leading the blind, the average sportsperson is walking a thin line between glory and disgrace.

The price that the country, the sport and all those who have worked hard towards supporting the sportsperson have to pay for the ignorance that exists in the system is enormous. I would believe that this should be an automatic eye opener and work as a catalyst towards creating more awareness in the sporting community.

The oft seen scenario is that sportspersons caught in random in- and out-of-competition dope tests escapes lightly with the excuse that they took a particular medicine out of ignorance to cure an illness. If enough awareness is created there would be no question of leniency towards someone who fails a dope test.

The process of bringing about awareness in India would face two big challenges: first – lack of formal education among the majority of sportspersons and the support staff, and second – language, as information is available only in English. WADA should also look at how they can make things simpler; in its current form the matter is complex and difficult to understand.

One possible solution could be to make the pharma companies clearly indicate on the packaging if any of the ingredients in the medication are on WADA’s prohibited list.

Till we have a robust structure in place to assist the sportsperson, the onus lies squarely on the sportsperson's shoulder to ensure that everything entering their body is legal and they continue living on a prayer …

The links below are extremely important and I would encourage all sportspersons to take time out and read it:

Click here to access the WADA website.

Click here for the Prohibited List.

Click here for the Athletes Guide.

Click here for Q&A’s on Therapeutic Use Exemption.

Click here for the Doping Control Leaflet.

Click here for Q&A’s on Athletes and Medication.

Time Conversion LCM<->SCM

I am sure there are many out there trying to figure how the times in a short course pool can be converted to times in a long course pool …

Well, I too have been trying to do the same and have found the following answer on the USA Swimming website (Click here for all the details):

Keeping the Indian swimming scene in mind I have picked only the conversion ratios for Long Course meters (LCM) to Short Course meters (SCM) and vice versa.

Click here to access one of the online conversion tools.

Asian Indoor Games in a few pictures

Click here for all the swimming pictures from the Asian Indoor Games.