More than 250 swimmers of all age groups took a dive into the river Krishna at Durga Ghat to cover the distance of 1.5-km amidst constant vigil on Saturday while taking part in the annual river-crossing event organised by Aqua Devils Welfare Association (ADWA).
The event received an overwhelming response as swimmers from neighbouring districts such as West Godavari, Guntur and from Hyderabad took part enthusiastically.
“We also had swimmers from other states and one Surya Prakash from the USA,” said Sampara Ram Babu, association president.
Swimming turns youngsters courageous and parents should encourage them to take up such activity to help them grow in a healthy manner, according to its chairman Gokaraju Gangaraju.
Participating in the prize distribution function organised by the association in memory of noted builder late A. Subba Raju, he said while it was easy to swim in pools, plunging into big waterbeds like river and sea needed better skill and talent.
“The ADWA is promoting long-distance swimming in a big way and it is heartening that the association is organising the event for the 14th consecutive year on Republic Day,” he added.
The organising committee pressed into service country boats, tourism cruises and speed boats along with professional swimmers to oversee the safety aspects. It also donated a gold coin to all first prize winners in all five-age groups.
Winners
In the six to 15 years category, P. Sujan Chowdary, Manideep and Panduranga Reddy took the first three places while M. K. Praveen Babu, G. Srikanth and Guna Chakravarthy made the podium finish in the 16-30 category.
The 31-40 segment witnessed Somasekhar, Karimullah and T. Prabhakar (29) clinching the first three coveted places while A. Krishna Raju, Subbaiah and Naga Bharat were the winners in the 46-60 division. In the veterans’ segment, Rami Reddy, Ravindranarth and K. Reddy (38) took the honours. Legislators Malladi Vishnu, V. Srinivasa Rao, Citi Cable Managing Director P. Sai Baba and office-bearers of Aqua Devils Welfare Association took part in the meeting.
