The Hindu : Indian swimmers rule the pool

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 02, 2004

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Sport - Sports : General

Indian swimmers rule the pool

By Kamesh Srinivasan

India's Mandar Divase, who won the 1500m freestyle for men with a new Games record. — Photos: V. Sudershan

ISLAMABAD, APRIL 1. The Indian swimmers continued to assert their class as Mandar Divase won his second gold, the 1500-metre freestyle with a new mark, even as Rehan Poncha grabbed his third gold medal from the pool breezing past the Pakistanis in the 400-metre individual medley in the ninth SAF Games at the Islamabad Sports Complex here on Thursday.

Short of words, though he kept engaging the international media for long, the 18-year-old Maharashtra lad was not short of confidence as he blasted past the field in a timing of 16:30.83. The previous mark of 16:53.85 had stood against the name of J. Abhijit since Dhaka in 1993. In the process, Mandar also wrote a new national record, obliterating his own mark of 16:39.69 set two years back.

"It is fine to win here, but am looking forward to doing well in the Asian Games and the Olympic Games,'' said the soft-spoken lad.

The Indians won the 50-metre backstroke through Arun Venkataram and the 400-metre individual medley through Rehan Poncha, collecting their fourth gold through Dipesh Bairagi, Gairik Bardhan, Akbar Ali Mir and T. A. Sujith in the 4 x 100-metre medley relay.

There was more good news from the waters of the Rawal Lake, as Inderpal Singh and Jenil Krishnan won the coxless pairs event with a comfortable margin over Abbas Shah Shajjar and Ali Maqbool of Pakistan. Though they were defeated later in the coxless fours event two hours later, following strong effort amidst lusty cheering from the banks by the Pakistan team, the Indian team had done well to win a gold and a silver from only two events.

"Our main team is preparing for the Olympic qualifier. We couldn't get the combination right for the fours event,'' said Inderpal Singh, quite pleased to be winning medals in Pakistan. In fact, both Inderpal and Jenil Krishnan had won the Asian Games bronze, and also have Asian Championship silver medals to their name.

In volleyball, the Indian team was superb in downing Bangladesh 25-13, 25-14, 25-9, in recording its third victory in the league.It was a sight, as the Bangladesh players took turns in posing with the

Indian captain Y. Subba Rao, the tallest players in the squad, for personal photos after the match.

Coach G. E. Sridharan expressed his satisfaction at his team building up the momentum with each match and said that the team would be ready for the knock-out stage.

In squash, Joshna Chinnappa and Mekhla Subedar had little trouble in setting up an Indian final in the women's event, while Ritwik Bhattacharya and Sourav Ghoshal could not fight the Pakistanis much in the men's section.

The Indian women, won the table tennis title with a smooth win over Pakistan. Mouma Das was stretched a bit, while Poulomi Ghatak and Mantu Ghosh were too good to be tested for long.

In badminton, the Indian men had to really sweat it out against an inspired Pakistani team, in front of a packed Rodham hall in the final. Actually, it was the spectators who provided the much needed energy and confidence to the relatively inexperienced Pakistan players in making it a lively contest.

The defence and deception of Abhinn Shyam Gupta prevailed eventually against the tall left-hander Wajid Ali in the opening rubber, and that was a crucial win for India. Afterwards Chetan Anand cruised through against Ashan Qamar while the Indian doubles combination proved too good.

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