by Tokas, institute swimming captain
Swimming schroeter was conducted, despite the unavailability of institute swimming pool, in Velachery Aquatics Complex on two days (11th and 18th March). Despite the events being scheduled in the afternoon, there was appreciable participation. Since, there were constraints on number of people allowed in the pool, efforts had to be taken to conduct the races smoothly and on time.
It was a one hostel show as Jamuna swept 7 out of 11 individual gold medals, riding on the performance of a freshie, Akshay Krishna, who is also one of the best swimming talents in the country; he took 5 golds facing no serious competition and testimony to the same were the four broken Inter-IIT records and 5 all-time schroeter records in the 5 events in which he participated.
Narmada finished far second with 4 golds,3 silvers and 4 bronze medals. The star performances were from Anand Parikh and Krishna Rao (2010 Inter-IIT hero) both winning two gold medals each. Anand won both the back stroke events. Krishna took 100 freestyle and 100 breast stroke poles. Interestingly Anand faced a very tough fight from his own brother, Sahaj Parikh, in back stroke events; so much so that it took the help of a slow-motion camera to decide the winner in 50 meters backstroke.
Other notable performances were from Institute swimming captain Tokas who won 1 gold and 3 Silvers. Former water-polo captain Sahaj Parikh won 1 Gold, 3 silvers and 1 bronze. Hotseat of Saraswathi and GPS of Narmada bagged 3 and 4 bronze medals respectively. Mithun Joy Cherayil(Tapti), who is one of the best athletes of the institute, won a surprise silver in the 100 meters freestyle. Among freshies, Phaneendra of Tapti showed a promising performance.
In relays, Jamuna (Akshay, Tokas, Sahaj, Varshith) again won both 4*50 freestyle relay and 4*50 medley relay, with Narmad (GPS,Anand, Crunchy, Machi) taking silver and Tapti(Prabhat, Mithun, Phaneendra, Bonus/Roza) taking bronze. Saras finished fourth, which gave Tapti overall third position and Saras fourth.
Prabhat Kiran, a final year CS student who led the swimming team and water-polo’s offence spearhead in Inter-IIT 2010, was given farewell with great cheering. We will remember him as an agile long-distance swimmer and a great team player, as well as for his very accurate and powerful side shoots.
Despite the time constraint and pain of going all the way to Velachery pool, cycling 4 kilometers in the scorching heat of summer afternoon, Swimming Schroeter saw great participation from all the hostels. The participating enthusiasm was so much that they came even when they had quiz the next day. Looking overall at the event we can say that we will remain the aquatics powerhouse among the IITs in coming years given whatever conditions and constraints.
Results:-
Gold: Jamuna Silver: Narmada Bronze: Tapti Fourth: Saraswathi
1500 Freestyle: 1) Akshay 2) Anand 3) GPS 4) Roza
400 Freestyle: 1) Akshay 2) Anand 3) GPS 4) Prabhat
200 Freestyle: 1) Tokas 2) Prabhat 3) Jay 4) Phaneendra
100 Freestyle: 1) Crunchy 2) Mithun 3) Hotseat 4) Tokas
50 Freestyle: 1) Akshay 2) Crunchy 3) Hotseat 4) Anand
100 Breast: 1)Crunchy 2) Tokas 3) Sahaj 4) Deva
200 Breast: 1) Sahaj 2) Tokas 3) Crunchy 4) Deva
100 Backstroke: 1) Anand 2) Sahaj 3) Phaneendra 4) GPS
50 Backstroke: 1) Anand 2) Sahaj 3) Hotseat 4)Phaneendra
50 Butterfly: 1) Akshay 2) Sahaj 3) Hotseat 4) Crunchy
200 IM: 1) Akshay 2) Tokas 3) GPS 4) Prabhat
4×50 Freestyle relay: 1) Jamuna 2) Narmada 3) Tapti 4) Saraswathi
4×50 Medley relay: 1) Jamuna 2) Narmada 3) Tapti 4) Saraswathi
