The little swimmers from Belgaum city excelled in the “Invitational Swimming Competition” held at Maharashtra's Ichalkaranji town and picked up a total of 59 medals, including 20 gold. The Swimmers' Club of Belgaum and Aquarius Swim Club, Belgaum accorded a warm reception to the winners on their return after the eventful participation and for bringing glory to their clubs and the city.
Many medals
The Ichalkaranji Swimming Club had hosted the event for Swimmers between five to 15 years age, which was sponsored by local Rotary Club. Nearly 300 swimmers from Kolhapur, Sangli, Ichalkaranji (all in Maharashtra) and Belgaum took part in the various events with great enthusiasm and sporting spirit. The Belgaum-team consisted of 23 swimmers, which bagged 20 gold, 17 silver and 22 bronze medals. Kriznana Irani, Bushan Killekar, Manasi Herekar and Samiksha Satpute lifted the individual championship titles.
Mansi and Samiksha won five gold medals each, while Krizana got four. Bhushan got two gold and one silver medals. Shivasamrat (rpt. Shivasamrat) Bhatkande, Shivashardul (rpt. Shivashardul) Bhatkande and Kushi Balekundri won a gold and a silver medal each. Purva Patil secured one gold and two bronze medals. Akshata Desai secured 4 silver and a bronze medals followed by Krutika Ganachari, who got three silver medals.
Rutu Murgod two silver and one bronze; Prishit Parmar and Manav Jadhav got two silver medals each; while both Gururaj Kellekar (rpt Kellekar) and Janhavi Pednekar won a silver medal.
The bronze medal winners are Nidhi Chipre (5), Neha Kittur (3), Parzaan Irani (3), Tushar Tarihalkar (3), Aditya Birje (2), samiya Mense (1) and Shashank Ganachari (1).
The swim coach, Akshay Sheregar, Sonali, Lakhan Shahpurkar, Rahul Patil, Sudhir Joshilkar, Rajashri Patil and Umesh Khade, who have been guiding many such young swimmers to excel in state and national level competitions, now look forward to many such achievements for these little champs in near future.
