Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

SPORTS

Turkey) and on 29th to 31st October, 1966, he also swam the Pan- ama Canal. Mihir Sen had swum the English Channel, the first Indian to achieve the feat, on 27th September 1958. While Arati Saha became the first Indian woman to cross the English Channel in 1959, Arati Pradhan at the age of seventeen became the first woman in the world to swim the 30 kms Straits of Gibraltar on 29th August, 1988 with a timing of seven hours and 17 minutes. Special mention must be made of Taranath Shenoy and K.Janaki, who overcame their own physical handicaps and success- fully crossed the English Channel. Taranath Shenoy, a deaf-mute, also became the first such person in the world to swim across the 30-km, shark-infested Straits of Gibraltar on 4th August, 1988. On 6th August, 1988, two Maharashtra youngsters, Abhijeet Rao (then aged 12) and Naina Mallapurkar (then aged 15) suc- cessfully swam across the 47 kms English Channel, in the process becoming the youngest Asians to achieve such a feat. On 10th Au- gust, 1988, Archana Patel at the age of 13 became the first Indian to win a gold in the international marathon swimming meet in Swit- zerland. Another notable achievement is that of Swamini Kamul- kar, who also at the age of 13, covered the 36-km distance between Dharamtar to the Gateway of India using only the backstroke style. Other Indians to swim the English Channel: Dr. Bimal Chandra, Nitindra Narayan Ray, Avinash Sarang, Bijoy Jain, Shailesh Kialje, Arati Pradhan, Anita Sood, Rajeev Gadgil, Rajesh Gadgil, Harsh Thakore, Rajaram Ghag, Anil Desai, Abhijit Datey and Bula Ch- oudhary. Arjuna Awards: Bajrangi Prasad, Rima Datta, Arun Shaw, Baidyanath, Bhanwar Singh, Dhanvir (Tingoo) Khatau, Avinash Sarang, Manjari Bhargava, M.S. Rana, Smita Desai, Persis Madan, Anita Sood, Khazan Singh, Taranath Shenoy, Arati Pradhan, Wilson Cherian and Bula Choudhary.

clubs used to conduct inter-city tournaments and there used to be a regular exchange of club teams for competitive purposes between Calcutta and Bombay, and vice versa. The National Swimming Association, which conducted the first National Championship in Bombay in 1944, also got affiliated to the Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA). The Swimming Federation of India (SFI) was formed in 1948 with P.L. Ahir as the first general secretary. The FINA affiliation was then transferred to this apex body for the promotion of swim- ming in India. The first task of the SFI was to send an official Indian team to the 1,948 London Olympic Games. The contingent included both swimmers and a water polo team. India also took part in the swimming and water polo competitions of the 1952 Helsinki Olym- pic Games. Two women (Dolly Nazir and Arti Shah) were also a part of the swimming squad. India’s next participation in an Olym- pic Games was at the 1988 Seoul Olympiad, where the country was represented in swimming by the one-man squad of Khazan Singh Tokas. The onus of conducting the national championship also fell on the SFI and it has been conducting the the nationals successfully on an annual basis. Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh, the then ’president of the SFI, added a new dimension to the national cham- pionship by introducing the junior category in 1974. The SFIalso introduced the sub-junior category in 1984 and now national swim- ming championships are conducted under various age groups (be- ginning from eight) in the sub-junior and junior categories, apart from an open senior nationals in which even up and coming junior swimmers can participate. Though Indian swimmers have not earned much of a reputation in the international scene, there have been significant individual performances, especially in long distance swimming. The biggest contingent of Indian swimmers participated in the ninth Asian Games at New Delhi, when Indian swimmers took part in swim- ming (men and women), diving (men and women) and water polo (men) competitions. Before this-, the country’s participation in the Asian Games swimming competitions was irregular, especially after the first two Asiad meets in which the Indians participated. Indian swimmers won four gold medals in the first Asian Games in 1951 at New Delhi. Subsequently India had to wait till the 1986 Seoul Asian Games, when Khazan Singh won the silver medal in the 200 metres butterfly stroke event. The Indians, however, have been a dominant force in the South Asian region haying topped in all the South Asian Federation Games held so far. To Khazan Singh also goes the credit of claiming the maximum number of golds in a single international meet. Khazan won eight gold medals including two relay golds in the first South Asian Federation Games at Kathmandu in 1984. The Indian juniors and sub-juniors have been participating in the Asia-Pacific age group championships for the last three years and have been winning medals under the various age group catego- ries. While recording the history of Indian swimming it must be noted that Golwala of Bombay, P.L. Ahir (West Bengal) and Nurul Hassan (Assam) played a key role in the development of swimming as a competitive sport in the early formative years. Among many long distance records stands out the name of Mihir Sen, who has distinguished himself as the only swimmer in the world to have crossed several straits in a single year. On 5th and 6th April 1966, he crossed the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka, on 24th August , the Straits of Gibraltar (Europe-Africa), on 12th September the Dardanelles (Gallipoli to Sendulbahir,

National Aquatic championships MEN

Event

Name

Units

Time

Year

50 m Free Style

Sebastian Xavier

Railways

0:23.34

1992

100 m FreeStyle

Sebastian Xavier

Railways

0:53.96 (R)

1992

200 m Free Style

Khazan Singh

Police

2:00.10

1988

400 m Free Style

J. Abhijit

Police

4:16.39

1994

1500 m Free Style

J. Abhijit

Pplice

16:56.84

1994

100 m Back Stroke

Wilson Cherian

Railways

1:01.47

1991

200 m Back Stroke

Bhanu Sachdev

Delhi

2:13.14

1994

100 m Breast Stroke

Sebastian Xavier

Railways

1:08.52

1994

200 m Breast Stroke

S. Radhakrishnan

Police

2:34.04

1985

100 m Butterfly

Suresh Kumar

Railways

0:57.79

1994

200 m Butterfly

Suresh Kumar

Railways

2:08.31

1994

Stroke

Khazan Singh

Police

2:01.11 (H)

1985

200 m Individual

Sebastian Xavier

Railways

2:15.27

1994

Medley

400 m Individual

J. Abhijit

Police

4:49.58

1994

Medley

4X100 Free Style

-

Railways

3:44.53

1992

4X200 Free Style

-

Railways

8:21.15

1994

4X100 Medley

Railways

4:07.18

1994

Diving: Spring Br.

Satish Jhambhulkar

Services

470.55 pts

1992

High Board

S ameer Choudhry

Delhi

448.38 pts

1988