Written by Snehit, SOC Newsletter Core.for Spinfo Vol II, Edn I.
The Inter-IIT aquatics meet 2009 was held in IIT Kanpur from the 2nd to the 5th of October. The following students represented IIT Madras at the Meet.
IIT Madras Boys Aquatics Team
1. Kaushal K. N. (Chutta) – captain
2. Varun Gupta (Tattu)
3. S R S Ravi Teja (1B)
4. Sahaj P (Gujju)
5. Prabhat Kiran
6. Rudra P (GPS)
7. Abhinav Gopal
8. Abhijat Joshi (Nichoda)
9. Ishaan Soni (Hoby)
10. Prudhvi (Kundi)
11. Naveen Thomas (Graffiti)
12. Pranshu Sugara
IIT Madras Girls Aquatics Team
1. Aarthy Adityan K(c)
2. Comandur Roopa
3. K. Amrutha Gayatri
4. Sruthi Chandrasekhar
5. SInjinee Sardar
The IITM Aquatics team left for Kanpur, fully confident of getting back gold in the waterpolo and making a mark in swimming as well. But things were not as simple as they seemed.In their first Waterpolo league match, IITM had to play IITK, the home team. Till the third quarter, IITM maintained a considerable lead, though not a huge one. The score line read 4-2 in IITM’s favour. Then a string of biased umpiring decisions followed and IITK ended up winning the match 5-4. Now , we had to win the next match with a huge margin to qualify for the semi-finals. So the team decided to concentrate more on waterpolo than swimming,strategically withdrew from the relays.
In the next league match, IITM played IITKGP. The match was a one sided affair, reminiscent of
last year’s matches. IITM won the match 13-6.It was business as usual for the ‘Sharks’. We were in the semifinals against Bombay.The classic Inter IIT rivalry presented itself again. Our team did not want to lose this one. But five of our team members were sick from food poisoning (due to spurious sandwiches from a stall kept for Inter IIT participants) and were on saline drips at IITK health centre. Even warnings from the medical officers of not being treated if they played, could not stop them. Tattu, Chutta, Prabath and Nichoda who were admitted hospital, turned up to play the match.In spite of being in a greatly weakened condition, they played with amazing determination and made sure we did not lose. Everyone at the pool was awestruck, as IITM emerged victorious (7- 5).Graffiti deserves a special mention for putting up a great performance despite being injured badly.
As their condition deteriorated, the players who fell were refused treatment in the IITK health centre
for playing in the match against medical advice. So they had to leave the campus early and get
treatment elsewhere. A much weakened IITM team played in the finals but it was not a run of the mill second rung team. We played exceptionally in the initial stages of the match, giving IITK quite a few scares. However, we could not sustain the momentum and the match eventually ended in 8-4 in IITK’s favour.
In the few swimming events we participated, Tattu won silver in 200m. medley, 1b (Ravi Teja) won silver in 50 m. freestyle.The girls team won bronze in 4×200 m. relay. Amongst all the action that was happening on and off the pool,the Chief Referee’s antics deserve a special mention.He was always to be found in the IITK camp giving them advice,support and not to forget the cheering when IITK scored.He also took good care of IITK players,calling a foul whenever one of them was as much as touched.
The food-poisoning played spoil sport, unfortunately leaving us the most affected of teams. Though we did not score much on the points, the grit and determintion shown by the team in the semis against Bombay will always be remembered.
The final results are as follows:
Swimming:
1. IITK
2. IITKgp
3. IITB
Waterpolo
1. IITK
2. IITM
3. IITB
IITM is currently third overall behind IITK and IITKgp.
