15 months-old boy's swimming record in bid to enter Guinness

Chennai, June 12 (UNI) A 15 months-old boy today swam a distance of four metres in a swimming pool of cosmopolitan club here, in pursuit of a world record to be etched in the Guinness Book of Records, here today.

Watched by three officials who would be endorsing the feat to be sent to officials of the Guinness Book, including Member Secretary Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu(SDATN) and Director Special Olympics M S Nagarajan, The boy, Maharanth Kamalakar was born on March 13, 2006 and has a natural liking for water, as it were, was 'trained' to swim by his maternal uncle, a long distance swimmer Arun Balaji, himself a record breaker. Arun told UNI that as his little nephew had a natural liking to water, his mother and father, wanted to attempt a Guinness record. ''I trained him in the pool at the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association Club House. It was easy to teaching him as at home he imitates whatever I do when I play with him'', Arun said.

According to the boy's parents, the current Guinness Record holder happens to be a boy in Australia, who at the age of two and-a-half years just floated in a swimming pool for about 80 minutes. ''We wanted our child to emulate this feat'', the boy's mother Vijayalakshmi said.

UNI