Well prepared to out-perform previous medal tally, says national swimming coach Pradeep Kumar

09/23/2019

National swimming coach Pradeep Kumar is confident his swimmers will out-perform their previous tally of five gold, 13 silver and 22 bronze medals in this edition of the Asian Age Group Championships. Kumar believes it will be a challenging meet as the competitors will be sending their best squad.

National swimming coach Pradeep S. Kumar on Sunday said India will be well prepared and aiming to out-perform their previous tally of five gold, 13 silver and 22 bronze medals in the 10th Asian Age Group Championships to begin in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

“This is the first time that many of them will be swimming at such a major International competition at home and the mood in the team is upbeat. All the swimmers are high in spirits and are well-prepared to improve the total medals tally from the previous edition,” he told PTI.

“There is no doubt that we will be aiming to finish on top of the medals tally,” added the Dronacharya awardee.

With powerhouse countries such as Japan, Kazakstan, Chinese Taipei and Thailand sending their full-strength squads, it won’t be an easy task for the hosts and the coach is fully aware of that.

“This will be a challenging meet with contingents from Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Japan and Kazakstan bringing their full squad consisting their country’s best swimmers. Countries like Jordan and Syria also will have participants to watch out for. Competition, particularly in Group 1 boys and Group 2 girls, will be tough but our swimmers have made good progress,” Kumar said.

The nine-day tournament, which is a Qualifying Event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will also witness participation of countries such as Iran, Kuwait, Maldives, Oman, Bangladesh, Singapore, UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, and Syria.

Speaking about ace Indian swimmers, 26-year-old Sajan Prakash and 18-year-old Srihari Nataraj, who have secured B Qualification time for Tokyo Olympics, and Virdhawal Khade, who is riding on a good show at the recent Senior Nationals in Bhopal, Pradeep expressed confidence in them and said that “they are in good shape” and “have a good chance of making the A-cut.”

The Championships will be held across four disciplines which are swimming, diving, water polo, and synchronised swimming.

The event will have participants in the open category (18 years and above), as well as Age Groups I (15-17 years) and II (14 years and below).