Best Swimmer Richa fails to make it for Doha Asian Games

Bangalore, Sep 26 (UNI) Despite bagging five golds and best swimmer (women) award at the recently concluded National Senior Acquatic Championship, Richa Mishra failed to make the cut for Doha Asian Games over as Arjun Muralidharan and Olympian Shikha Tandon got the nod, along with four other swimmers for the quadrennial event to be held in Qatar in December.

Swimming Federation of India (SFI) selection committee, which met here yesterday under the chairmanship of its President Digambar Kamat, after a detailed discussion with National Coach Pradeep Kumar, decided to include Ankur Kohinan, Nilasha Ghosh, Veerdhaval Khade, and Rehan Poncha.

SFI secretary Nanavati told newsmen here today that efforts were on to send the swimmers for training abroad either in Europe or Mexico with the Union Sports Ministry bearing the expenditure.

In the event of the proposal not cleared by the Government the swimmers would undergo training at the Sports Authority of India, South Centre here from October nine.

He said that the progress of each swimmer would be closely monitored and if they fail to prove their ability before November 15 they will not be sent to Doha.

Nanavati said that both Ankur and Nilasha were training in the United States. Both had performed well in the recently concluded US Open and their coaches have assured that they would gear up for Doha Asian Games.

Mr Nanavati said in all 32 swimmers, including six for Asian Games, have been selected for coaching Camp at SAI Centre here for the forthcoming Asian Games, World Championship, scheduled to be held in Manchester in March 2007, and 2010 rpt 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. He said the Selection Committee decided to impart Coaching from now itself since Federation of Internationale De Aquatics (FINA) has changed the criteria for selection of swimmers to participate in the Olympics. As per recent International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines, only 800 swimmers from all over the world could take part and hence FINA had adopted strict measures to permit swimmers to participate.

Following is the list of Probables selected for Coaching Camp at SAI, Bangalore for the forthcoming Asian games, World Championship and Commonwealth Youth Games: Men: Mandar Divase (Pol), Rohit R Havaldar (Kar), Aaron D'Souza(Kar) Sandeep Sejwal (Del), Rohit Kumar (Pol), Arjun Muralidharan (Pol), N A Sandeep (Kar), Veerdhaval Khade (Mah), Aniketh D'Souza (Kar), Rehan Poncha (Kar), Srinand Srinivas (Kar) J P Arjun (Kar), Amar Muralidharan (Pol), Praveen Tokas (Del), V Abhishek (Kar).

Women: Charu Mishra (Pol), Pooja R Alva (Kar), Kshipra Mahajan (Kar), V Tejaswini (Kar), M S Divya (AP), Fariz Zaman (Assam), Arpana Magdum (Mah), Lekha Kamath (Mah), B Neeraja (Mah), Madhavi giri (Kar), Richa Mishra (Pol), M Mini (Ker), C Shubha (MP), Parita Parekh (Guj), Aarthi Ghorpade (Mah), Jessica Bole (Kar) and Shikha Tandon (Kar).

UNI