Rajasthan’s Narayan Seva Sansthan to support National para swimming meet
Rajasthan’s Narayan Seva Sansthan to support next month’s National Para Swimming Meet
New Delhi : Tokyo Paralympians Suyash Jadhav and Niranjan Mukundan will be the main attraction at next month’s national para swimming championships. The national competition will be held under the aegis of Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) in coordination with Rajasthan’s Narayan Seva Sansthan, a non-government organisation that supports disabled athletes.
According to Dr. Virender Kumar Dabas, Chairman, PCI para Swimming Technical Council, over 400 para-athletes, including females are expected to compete in the four-day event scheduled to be held in Udaipur from March 23.
Dabas said, Post Tokyo Paralympic Games the para sports movement in India is getting huge response from both private sponsors as well as from government departments.
“We are expecting more participants than the previous edition as the national competition this year will also act as a qualification event for the Asian Para Games in China,” Dabas said.
Maharashtra’s 28 years old Jadhav from Solapur will compete in S7 category in the nationals. The reigning 2018 Jakarta Asian Games champion in 50m butterfly will certainly look forward to establishing himself atop the field again to win a berth for the 2022 Asian Para Games scheduled to be held from October 9 to 15 in China.
Mukundan, another high-profile Indian para swimmer, will also compete in the men’s S7 category.
Asian Para Games medalist Devanshi Satija from Haryana and Maharashtra’s Swapnil Patil will also be one to watch during nationals in Udaipur.
Going by depth in the field, Dabas is confident of improving previous Asian Param Games medal tally of eight, including one gold, later this year in China.
“Despite training schedules being disrupted due to the pandemic several para-athletes have managed to keep themselves fit. Our medal tally in China will be more than 10 medals,” Dabas said with an air of confidence.
Para-athletes from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana and West Bengal will be one to watch, Dabas added.
