Young swimmer from Bengal earns Olympic berth

After creating waves in the sub-junior and junior national tournaments, swimmer Supriya Mondal from Shahpur in West Bengal has now qualified for the 2014 Youth Olympics to be held in Nanjing, China after bagging gold at the 1st Dubai International Aquatic Championships in Hamdan on Tuesday.

In Dubai, Mondal won the 200m butterfly event clocking 2:03:93s. This was one of the three medals he won in the meet. Earlier, he clinched a silver (56.45s) and a gold (25.67s) in 100m and 50m butterfly events respectively.

"Qualifying for the Youth Olympics is a dream come true. I am thankful to my family, coach and others who have supported my dream. I hope to make them all proud at the Youth Olympics in August and beyond," said the 17-year-old Mondal.

Mondal – who is also a grant recipient of GoSports Foundation's PACE scholarships programme – had relocated to Bangalore to train under coach Nihar Ameen.

The foundation has been taking care of his accommodation, training and tournament related expenses for three years now.

"I'm extremely proud of his achievement. Accomplishing this feat is a testament to his sincerity and hard work. In the next few months we will focus solely on the Youth Olympics and train towards performing exceptionally well at Nanjing," said Ameen.