Tulasi Chaitanya joined the A.P. Police as a constable only a year ago, but he has now become the toast of the entire sports fraternity by creating history of sorts: becoming the first-ever swimmer from the State to win an international medal.
As a member of the Indian team, Chaitanya bagged the 4 x 50m freestyle relay gold in the World Police Games held in Belfast.
Significantly, Chaitanya, stationed in Vijayawada, will feature in five more individual events and is expected to surprise many with a couple of stand-out performances, says Rajiv Trivedi, Additional DGP (Sports).
Thanks to the initiative of the A.P. Police top brass, Chaitanya had a training stint at the famous Basavanagudi Swimming Pool in Bangalore under the tutelage of head coach Pradeep Kumar.
This is the same national coach who saw many teenagers from Karnataka win gold in the recent Junior National Aquatics at Gachibowli.
Chaitanya’s performance was no surprise to many who followed his career-graph, as only recently he won two gold and a silver in the All India Police Games held in Guwahati, following which V. Dinesh Reddy, Director-General of Police, gave him an out-of-turn promotion as head constable.
Incidentally, Chaitanya is also the first swimmer to be picked from the State for the World Police Games. He also holds the world record timing of 12 hours and 31 minutes for crossing Palk Strait (30-km distance between Sri Lanka and India).
“We are grateful to the government for supporting sportspersons like Tulasi with special grants. We are also trying out similar options in other disciplines where there is a potential to win medals at the highest level. Our goal is to see that one from our department wins a medal in the 2016 Olympics in Rio,” he says.
