— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

SAGE ADVICE: Sri Lankan swimming coach Julian Bolling feels India has to set its sights high.

BANGALORE : With proper planning and support, Indian swimmers can be world class, said Sri Lankan Olympian and noted coach Julian Bolling. Julian had represented Sri Lanka in three successive Olympics (1984, 1988 and 1992) and was in Bangalore with a young bunch of swimmers from Rainbow Swimming Academy for the Karnataka junior championship.

He said it is time India sets its international sights high instead of being content with just dominating regional meets like the SAF.

In a chat with The Hindu here, he said, "it certainly has to be beyond SAF, you have talented band of swimmers like Veerdhawal Khade, who I feel is world class and highly motivated coaches such as S. Pradeep Kumar and Nihar Ameen. With a good system in place and by providing good exposure to talented ones on a regular basis, Indian swimming can surge ahead.''

Julian felt India should have dual meets with South East Asian nations like Singapore, which would be cost effective and also beneficial for the swimmers.

Julian's association with India and particularly Karnataka, goes far. His interaction with Pradeep Kumar, now the National coach, during Asia Pacific Games at Colombo in 1995 and later the SAF Games at Chennai set the ball rolling for an exchange of swimmers across the Palk Straits. Swimmers from Julian's Rainbow Club have been competing in Karnataka meets since 1997 and a State squad too made a trip to Colombo.

"For us, a trip to Bangalore is value for money. A state meet in Karnataka is like a mini Indian meet as some of best swimmers hail from this state and it is always good to compete with them,'' said Julian.

"Kids back home always complain about lack of time for practice due to studies and now they saw how their Indian counterparts train, despite heavy academic pressure. It is indeed an eye opener," he said.

Swimming runs in Julian's blood .His mother, Tara, was an international swimmer and so was his brother David and the club they founded together — Rainbow — has been the leading outfit in Colombo.

Pioneering work

In the wake of the Tsunami tragedy in December 2004, Julian did pioneering work. "The children who lived in the coastal villages of Sri Lanka which saw total destruction, became terrified of water and they were even scared to walk on the beach, let alone venture into the water.

"We devised a programme for children to shed their fears. We built a portable pool and took it from one coastal village to another in South and taught the kids to swim in it. The pool was filled with salt water and kids could get the feel of sea water. Slowly they began enjoying it.''

Julian's only regret has been that they have not been able to replicate their efforts in North and East Sri Lanka due to security concerns. "In fact, while we training the kids, snipers targeted our portable pools but once they saw what we were doing, the firing stopped.'' said Julian.

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