This year’s inter IIT aquatics were held in IIT Roorkee during October. This was precursor to the main sports meet at IIT Delhi in December, and consisted of many categories of men’s and women’s swimming competitions, as well as water polo. Medals in all events contributed to the General Championship tally in their respective categories.
The highlight of IIT Madras’s performance in swimming events this year was by Poorna Kumar, a first year Engineering Physics student who won bronze in 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly and the 4x100m freestyle relay, in addition to her silver in 50m backstroke. Niveditha Sharma, of IIT Roorkee, gave an impressive performance in girls’ swimming events; apart from winning gold in several events she broke the interIIT breast-stroke record by a little less than 5 seconds.
The men’s category of swimming events saw no medals from IIT Madras. Chirag Fialoke, a long events specialist, almost broke his own record set last year in 1500m freestyle. Pappu of IIT Kanpur continued his streak of wins from the previous interIIT by bagging gold in 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 4x50m relay. Water Polo, the most prominent event of the meet, saw intense competition. IIT Madras secured Bronze after an early defeat to IIT Kharagpur, who secured silver. Gold was won by IIT Kanpur for the second year in a row.
