3 local swimmers to compete in WUG

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 14

Three city swimmers have been selected to represent the Indian aquatics team in the 30th Summer Universaide (World University Games), to be held in Napoli, Italy, from July 3 to 14.

International swimmer Sahil Chopra and Siddhanth Sejwal have been selected in the men’s category, while Chahat Arora, a gold medallist in the 2015 National Games, will participate in the women’s category. Chopra is a student of Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26, and Sejwal is pursuing his studies from Panjab University Campus. Chahat is a student of MCM DAV College, Sector 36. All the three swimmers train at Panjab University under coach Gurcharan Singh.

Chahat said she was confident of winning a medal in the upcoming championship. “I am confident of winning a medal this time. I will be competing in the 100m and 200m freestyle, and 200 backstroke events. I have fully recovered from the break and recently participated in the Punjab Open Swimming Championship,” said Chahat.

The three-day trials to select the Indian team concluded on April 10 at Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka. “It’s never easy to compete in the World University Games. However, we have been practising throughout the season. During the course of the Games, the weather conditions in Italy will be similar to that in northern India. It is an advantage for us. We still have two months to prepare for the championship,” said Chopra.

Gurcharan said: “It’s a great honour for our centre. Chopra and Chahat have already represented the nation in many international championships, while Sejwal will make his international debut in this tournament. All three are promising swimmers and performed well in the inter-college/inter-university championships.”

The centre has produced over 60 international swimmers since 2008. Besides winning various All-India inter-university championships, the swimmers of Panjab University and its affiliated colleges have also won various national championships. “With the addition of an all-weather pool, our swimmers can now train throughout the year. It is the hard work of the officials and the swimmers that helped us produce many national and internationals stars,” said Gurcharan.