Sport - Swimming

Shikha to be sole Indian participant at Athens

BANGALORE, JULY 31. The Swimming Federation of India has announced that no Indian swimmer, apart from Shikha Tandon who qualified for the 50m and 100m freestyle events, would get wildcards for the Olympics at Athens.

There was lot of expectation in the swimming fraternity in the country that at least one male swimmer would be sent to Athens on a wildcard. Rehan Poncha was tipped for the slot. SFI had sent only two swimmers — S.H. Hakimuddin and Nisha Millet, to the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Nisha was the only one to qualify for the 200m freestyle event.

The last chance for the Indian swimmers to make the cut for Athens was in May-June this year, when they participated in the Malaysian Open championship, but none could qualify.

The National coach, S. Pradeep Kumar said, "We too expected one more swimmer to make it to Athens, but the SFI has informed us that only Shikha would go, as per FINA rules."

When contacted over phone, the SFI Secretary General, Virendra Nanavati, confirmed that only Shikha would go to Athens. He told The Hindu, "there is no question of a wild card this time as she has qualified for two events. Sydney was a different case, because Nisha had qualified only for one event and there was an option for us to field a wild card. We would have had a chance to do that if Shikha had made it only in one event, or for that matter, nobody had qualified for the Olympics. But since, she has made it in two events, it is unfair on our part to restrict her to only one race. So, Shikha is our only competitor at Athens."

Meanwhile, Shikha Tandon, now training in the National camp for the Asian Championship, scheduled in September, said that she was training hard and the Olympics, would be a great exposure for her.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu