On the eve of the Arjuna Awards 2011, where this year Virdhawal Khade and Prasanta Karmakar will step forward to claim the honor from the President of India, its time to remember the ones before who lead the way:
1. 1961 Jam. Bajarangi Prasad
2. 1966 Rima Datta
3. 1967 Arun Shaw
4. 1969 Baidyanath Nath
5. 1971 Bhanwar Singh
6. 1973 D. (Tingoo) Khatau
7. 1974 A.B. Sarang
8. 1974 Manjari Bhargava (diving)
9. 1975 M.S. Rana
10. 1975Smita Desai
11. 1982 Persis Madan
12. 1983 Anita Sood
13. 1984 Khajan Singh
14. 1988 Wilson Cherian
15. 1990 Bula Choudhury
16. 1996 V. Kutraleeshwaran
17. 1998 Bhanu Sachdeva
18. 1999 Nisha Millet
19. 2000 Sebastian Xavier
20. 2000 J. Abhijith
21. 2005 Shikha Tandon
22. 2010 Rehan Poncha
In terms of government recognition, this is the best year for Indian swimming with 3 national awards coming its way: While Virdhawal Khade and Prasanta Karmakar have been conferred the Arjuna Award, Mr. Sushil Kohli has been conferred the Dhyanchand Award.
The qualifying window for the 2012 London Olympic Games started on 1st March 2011 and for Individual entries will end on 1st June 2012 for the Olympic Selection Time (OST) and 3rd July 2012 for the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT).
In lay-man terms what is the difference between the two?
- OST is a much faster time compared to the OQT.
- If you achieve the OST along with being the fastest two in your country at the end of the Qualifying period you pretty much guarantee your spot in the Olympic Games.
- If a country wants to send two swimmers for a particular event, then both the swimmers have to swim faster than the OST.
- Achieving the OQT only makes you eligible to be invited to the Olympic Games. Assuming that at the end of the Qualifying period no other swimmer in your country is faster than you and no other swimmer has clocked the OST.
he new suit rules came into effect from 1st Jan 2010 (FINA Swimwear By Law). To highlight the significance of this change and to put it in lay-man terms, the swim suit regulations in terms of texture and body coverage has gone back by a decade. The first set of full body swimwear was introduced in 2000 prior to the Sydney Olympic Games. With no more assistance from the swim suit, esp for the men, the effects have begun to show in the difference in timings clocked this year.
FINA, for reasons best known to them, have chosen to retain the World Records clocked with the now banned swim suits.
Despite this big change 2010 was a historic year for Indian swimmers. Here are some of the best moments of Indian swimming:
Rehan Poncha wins the Arjuna Award
Prasanta Karmakar (Para-swimmer) wins India's first-ever medal in swimming at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games
Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal also created history at the Commonwealth Games by becoming the first swimmers (able bodied) to reach the finals (top 8). Virdhawal finished 7th in the Men's 50m Butterfly while Sandeep finished 8th in the Men's 50m Breaststroke.
Why is this big? Commonwealth Games is the only meet where each of the top nations in swimming can enter 3 swimmers for each event. The top swimming nations at the Commonwealth Games are: Australia, United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland), Canada and South Africa. Hence its no easy task making the top 8.
Virdhawal Khade wins India's first medal in swimming at the Asian Games after 24 years
Sharath Gayakwad became the first Indian Para-swimmer to attain the Minimum Qualification standard for the 2012 London Paralympic Games. He clocked a time of 1:20.90sec in the 100m Breaststroke and won a Bronze at the 2010 Asian Para Games.
Prasanta Karmakar won the most medals in the pool with 2 Bronze medals.
In the year end top-150 World Rankings (swimnews.com):
Virdhawal Khade
- No. 64 in the 50m Butterfly with a time of 24.31sec clocked at the Asian Games in November
- No. 105 in the 50m Freestyle with a time of 22.87sec clocked at the Asian Games in November
- No. 117 in the 100m Freestyle with a time of 50.10sec clocked at the Commonwealth Games in October
Sandeep Sejwal
- No. 104 in the 50m Breaststroke with a time of 28.58sec clocked at the Commonwealth Games in October
Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal continued their good showing at various international competitions to keep Indian Swimming on the world map.
In the year end top-150 World Rankings (swimnews.com) they featured in:
Sandeep Sejwal
- No. 60 in the 50m Breaststroke with a time of 27.84sec clocked at the Asian Age-Group in August
- No. 60 in the 200m Breaststroke with a time of 2:12.02sec clocked at the Asian Age-Group in August
- No. 67 in the 100m Breaststroke with a time of 1:00.97sec clocked at the Asian Age-Group in August
Virdhawal Khade
- No. 103 in the 100m Butterfly with a time of 52.77sec clocked at the Asian Age-Group in August
- No. 112 in the 50m Freestyle with a time of 22.55 sec clocked at the Asian Age-Group in August
- No. 118 in the 50m Butterfly with a time of 24.14sec clocked at the Asian Swimming Championships in November
- No. 148 in the 100m Freestyle with a time of 49.66sec clocked at the Asian Age-Group in August
After the 2009 World Championships in Rome, the Asian Age-group Swimming Championships in Tokyo and the Asian Swimming Championships in Foshan, China gave a glimpse of what could be expected from Indian Swimmers in 2010.
At the Asian Age-group Swimming Championships in Japan the Indian swimmers reaped a rich haul of 24 medals (8 Gold, 8 Silver and 8 Bronze medals). Virdhawal Khade again leading the pack with 4 Gold and 1 Silver in the individual events.
At the Asian Swimming Championships in Foshan (China) India had its highest ever medal haul of 7 medals. Virdhawal Khade led the way with 1 Silver (100m Freestyle) and 2 Bronze medals (50m Butterfly and 50m Freestyle). Sandeep Sejwal collected 2 Bronze medals (100m and 200m Breaststroke), Aaron D'souza won a Bronze (200m Freestyle) and the 4*100m Men's Medley Relay team won Bronze. The other highlight was Mandar Divase breaking the 16min barrier in the 1500m Freestyle clocking a time of 15min 56.96sec finishing 4th.
This was also the last of the flashy full-body swimsuits, esp. for men, that hogged more of the limelight more than the swimmers for the better part of 2008 and 2009 and following the global trend many National Records were rewritten.
After a hiatus of close to two years, Indian Swimming is back with a splash. During the next few days I shall do my best to capture the highlights of Indian swimming until now.
Going forward I hope to be more regular in keeping everyone updated on how Indian swimming continues to progress and becomes a force to reckon with.
