Swimmers win accolades senior state winning

Viraj Prabhu, a student of class XI Fr Agnel Junior College was recently selected from Thane district to participate in the Senior State Swimming Championship organised by the Maharashtra State Amateur Aquatic Association at the Arc on N swimming pool in Thane.

He swam exceeding all expectations and bagged a gold in 100m free-style completing the lap in 55.53 seconds. Prabhu grabbed silver medals in other events such as 50m fly and 50m breast stroke. "In his main event, he went neck to neck with India's Olympic swimmer and Asian Games medallist Virdhawal Khade in 50m freestyle and missed the first place with a margin of 0.1 second. Khade got gold in 23.86 and Viraj won silver in 24.03," said his coach Gokul Kamath.

Khade, the Asian Games medallist who appreciated Viraj's performance said, "Inspite of being eight years younger to me, the swimmer's performance was outstanding and this only proves and explains he has a bright future ahead."

The 16-year-old said, "It was a great feeling to be appreciated by one of the best swimmers. It only motivated me to be more focused and excel in the field."

Another swimmer, Rutuja Udeshi, the training partner of Viraj won a gold in the 200 breaststroke, creating a new state record. She raced against reigning record holder Poorva Shetye and swam a time of 2mins 49.36 seconds beating Shetye's existing state record of 2 minutes 54.68 seconds. Udeshi also bagged a gold in 400m free-style. She also won two silver medals in 200 free-style, 200 fly and a bronze in 100 fly. Rutujas time is merely a few seconds away from the Best Indian Performance in this event.