India pins its hopes on divers at Asian swimming championships

Entrusted with the duty of reviving the Asian swimming championships in Ahmedabad after a nine-year hole in October, the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) shouldn’t be solely showcasing its organisational capacity but additionally backing its divers to realize worthwhile leads to the continental occasion.

Competing alongside world swimming powers akin to China, Japan and Korea on the newly-built ‘world class venue,’ India is pinning its hopes on its divers.

“There’s affordable expectation that we could have a medal in diving. We’ve despatched our divers for a one-month coaching programme in Malaysia, the place they’ll get a bit of little bit of casual judging. Their scores might be realistically projected. An Australian coach (Shannon Roy) is working with them, notably within the males’s synchronised diving occasion, the place we’re concentrating on a medal. They had been alleged to go to Australia for a contest, however couldn’t get visas. We are different competitions,” SFI secretary Monal Chokshi informed The Hindu.

“We are having a water polo camp (for 25 males and 25 ladies) from January in Bangalore. We might be selecting the right 14 and 4 reserves. We are planning to ship them to an japanese European nation for coaching within the final one month of preparation.

“We will convey again one of many coaches (Babovic Miodrag and Anderic Nemanja) who had been working with our groups for the Asian Games preparation, however the groups weren’t cleared. This Asian Championships goes to be additionally the Asian Games qualifier with the top-six qualifying. After 1986, we’ve got by no means performed on the Asian Games. So we hope to interrupt the jinx.”

The SFI expects good performances from 4 swimmers. “In phrases of medals, we’re very not sure. We have good prospects. Srihari (Nataraj), Benediction Rohit has carried out exceptionally effectively. We have seen some nice performances from Shoan Ganguly in addition to Aryan Nehra. We’ll be holding the India camp for 2 months on the similar venue,” mentioned Chokshi.