PANAJI
Itwas a disappointing performance by Goan swimmers as they failed towin even a single medal at the 7thKhelo India Youth Games in Bihar.
Noneof the five-member Goan swimming contingent comprising of AarohiBorde, Sourabhi Sushant Naik, Pooja Rawool, Aryan A Patil and ArjunanP finished on the podium.
Infact, Aarohi Borde was the only swimmer from Goa to qualify for thefinals. She finished sixth in girls 200m butterfly with a timing of 2minutes 36.96 seconds.
Ingirls 100m butterfly, Aarohi narrowly missed out to qualify for thefinals as she finished ninth in the heats with a timing of 1 minute11.47 seconds. Only the top-8 makes it to the finals.
Aarohialso participated in girls 100m freestyle and girls 50m butterfly,but finished 12thand 13threspectively in the heats with a timing of 1:06.86 and 31.58respectively.
AnotherGoan swimmer Sourabhi Sushant Naik narrowly missed out to qualify forthe finals in girls 200m freestyle as she finished tenth in the heatswith a timing of 2 minutes of 20.05 seconds. However, in girls 50mfreestyle, Sourabhi finished 12thwith 29.90 seconds.
PoojaRawool also could not make it to the finals as she finished 11thand 12threspectively in the heats in girls 200m medley and girls 400mfreestyle respectively with a timing of 2:46.40 and 5:00.01respectively.
AryanA Patil (Boys 100m backstroke and 200m Backstroke) and Arjunan P(Boys 1500m freestyle) did not start their respective races.
Thisis the fourth successive edition after 2022, 2023 and 2024 that Goahas failed to win a swimming medal at the Khelo India Youth Games.
Thisis in stark contrast from the earlier three editions i.e. 2018, 2019and 2020 wherein Goan swimmers had won 29 medals – 7 in 2018, 14 in2019 and 8 in 2020 edition.
NineGoan swimmers have won medals in the previous editions of Khelo IndiaYouth Games with Xavier Michael D’Souza (1 gold, 7 silver, 2bronze), Shrungi Bandekar (4 silver and 3 bronze), Suman Patil (2silver and 2 bronze) and Shoan Ganguly (2 silver and 1 bronze)winning multiple medals in different editions i.e. either in 2018,2019 or 2020.
ZidaneIqbal Sayed (1 silver), Saachi Gramopadhye (1 silver), Jerry D’Mello(1 bronze), Sayani Ghosh (1 bronze) and Kiran Narvekar (1 bronze)have been the other medal winners for Goa in swimming in earliereditions.
Thisclearly indicates that the swimming standard in Goa has really gonedown in recent times. Goa has a lot of catching up to do, especiallyin the swimming arena.
