The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Bengalooru Habba is making a splash

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Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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Karnataka - Bangalore

Bengalooru Habba is making a splash

Kalyan Ashok

Everything went swimmingly at Bowring Institute on Sunday

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Raring to go: Children who had assembled for the swimming competition at Bowring Institute, organised as a part of the Bengalooru Habba in Bangalore on Sunday.

BANGALORE: Swimming had never been so much fun. Ask six-year-old Sneha. She never won any medal, but had a whale of time at the Airtel Bengalooru Habba swimming competition at the Bowring Institute pool here on Sunday. The meet, organised by the Indian Swimming Foundation (ISF) and Bowring Institute as part of Bengalooru Habba celebration, was roaring success and a truly “habba” atmosphere prevailed in that small 25-metre pool.

Nisha Millet, the Olympian from ISF, ran the show in a spectacular manner, showing her acumen for man management and event show. Nisha, who had represented the country in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, besides several international meets including the Asian Games, Asian and World Championships, said she was overwhelmed by the response.

“It t all started when Padmini Ravi and Nandini Alva of AFFA and who are a part of organising committee of the Airtel Bengalooru Habba asked me whether we can have a swimming meet included in their programme and I readily agreed. We at ISF roped in nearly 20 officials and our members to run the show and figures we received were amazing. In the first instance, nearly 350 children turned up and later 150 more joined and we simply had no breathing time, conducting event after event for all of them,” said Ms. Millet.

The kids had a pep talk from other sports personalities such as Ashwini Nachappa, Shikha Tandon, Rehan Poonacha, U. Vimal Kumar, Ashish Ballal and Pankaj Advani, who graced the opening and cheered on the kids. The meet was conducted for those in age group of five years to 16 in Groups I to V.

It was basically for kids who know swimming, but who had never won a medal in any competition, to put it sporting parlance, it was a non-medallist contest. There was a special event for both physically and mentally challenged children and Arshad Farid, Ashwin, Prajwal, Kaushal, Neeranjan, Jude and Mark, who took part in the event, received special mementos. Even as the dusk was setting in, there was enough action at Bowring Pool as Nisha and team raced against time to complete the events.

“We would love to have this every year as a part of Bengalooru Habba and given such an enthusiastic response, we will make it bigger and better and we too have learn lot from this experience,” said Ms. Millet .

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