City swimming champ rues lack of competition

CHANDIGARH: Lack of competition is hampering the growth of city swimmers, feels Tejinder Singh Bains, who set a new meet record at the 41st Punjab State Swimming Championship after clocking 26.01s to win the 50m butterfly gold at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana on Sunday.

Tejinder Singh won four medals, including two gold, in the Punjab State Swimming Championship at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana. Manoj Mahajan

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 3

Lack of competition is hampering the growth of city swimmers, feels Tejinder Singh Bains, who set a new meet record at the 41st Punjab State Swimming Championship after clocking 26.01s to win the 50m butterfly gold at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana on Sunday.

“Lack of tournaments is affecting our performance. Without having a target in sight we cannot achieve what we are really capable of,” Tejinder said after his record breaking effort.

The 21-year-old bettered the previous record of 28.21s set by Jallandhar’s Aman Ghai to claim the top spot. “It was for the first time that I was participating in the Punjab State Championship and I am happy with my performance. Though, I had appeared in the trials last year, I was dropped from the squad following some technical reasons,” said Tejinder, who won four medals, including two gold, in the event.

A student of SGGS College, Sector 26, Tejinder also won a gold medal in the 100m butterfly competition. The youngster clocked 1.00:56s to stay at the top.

In the 100m freestyle event, Tejinder clocked 55.45s to clinch the silver medal. He also bagged a bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke.

A regular at the Panjab University Swimming Centre, Tejinder trains under coach Gurcharan Singh. “I have been training under Gurcharan sir from the past 10 years and the credit for my success definitely goes to him,” said the budding swimmer, whose father Paramjit Singh Bains is also a swimming coach with the UT Sports Department.

“He (father) has supported me through thick and thin… Gurcharan sir guides me at every step while my father motivates me to scale the new heights,” said Tejinder, who as per his admission, started swimming at the age of five.

“Gurcharan sir is a renowned coach and teaches a swimmer how to perfect his shortcomings. We have dozens of champions from this centre (PU) and hopefully, we will continue to dominate the inter-university aquatics championships,” said the inter-university gold medallist swimmer.

Till date, Tejinder has won eight inter-university gold medals besides pocketing a silver and a bronze. He has also 29 inter-college medals to his credit.