Every year, as the National Swimming Championship is held for Seniors, Juniors and Sub-Juniors, it gives a chance to all swimmers in India, to benchmark themselves in terms of where they stand in their chosen strokes. Since, these national events are one of the very few ones done in line with international event standards, namely – qualification heats and finals instead of time-trials and the use of touchpads, the swimmers can learn a lot about their strokes, which otherwise is not possible.
Sadly, there is no centralised or regional ranking for swimmers in India, though there has been a word of it being done for the past many years.
Another interesting aspect of the ranking of the swimmers on a state and district level. Before the national games, swimmers have to first qualify for their district trials and subsequently for the state trials. And then finally, a small group of swimmers are selected to represent their respective states. Typically, the first two winners from each of the races are nominated for the district and state selections. These competitions are hard fought, especially in states like Maharashtra and Karnataka, where swimmers from different districts fight it out for the honour to wear the state jackets to the national championships.
The state selection results are also eagerly awaited by the swimmers from all over the country as they get an idea as to where they stand in their pursuit of the podium. Typically, these trials are meant to happen simultaneously, but seldom does that happen. Also, Karnataka Swimming Association’s trials are one of the most well organised ones, as they come out with a detailed list of the timings in digital format. This factor also increases transparency and trust. This is not so for many other states.
Coming to the trials this year, it was done in a hurried manner, as the dates for the upcoming nationals to be held in Bangalore were announced. This led to a mad scramble, especially in the states like Maharashtra, where the swimming pools were not yet open due to the Covid Scenario. The scene was also convoluted because the trials for Maharashtra state selection were happening at multiple places, Dubai (conducted by national coach Pradeep Kumar), Delhi, Karnataka (as part of the ongoing state trials). Thus swimmers from Maharashtra were at a great disadvantage, first they were competing with swimmers that had been practicing regularly outside the state, even when they could not. Secondly, even if they triumphed at the event at Pune, they were not sure of the outcome, as the results from UAE and Delhi trials had not yet arrived. This led to a lot of sourness and heartburn.
And the results kind of speak for themselves. On analysing the Maharashtra State Selection sheet, some trends are very obvious, some of them challenging and some of them quite encouraging. On an overall status, this year has been a year of significant decline for Maharashtra Swimming as is obvious by the paucity of swimmers getting national-beatable-times. For years Maharashtra and Karnataka have keenly fought for the crown in terms of numbers of swimmers from their state finishing up on the podium, but this year it seems it would not be the tough-fight.
Here is a list of the broad trends that can be discerned from the Senior, Junior and Sub-Junior selections
Decline in Female Participation
One of the biggest worrying trends for this year has been the abject decline in female participation. While traditionally, there are always fewer female participants than male. But it has never been to such an extent that the total numbers of participants for an event are equal to the total number that are supposed to get selected. This is a clear indication that, while on an overall basis there has been a reduction in swimmers, it is more severe in terms of girls.
District Dynamics
For years, the honors at the state trials have been largely dominated by the districts of Mumbai and Thane, followed by Pune. But this year, there is a stark contrast. The list which reflects the number of swimmers in the top 6 of each stroke, reflects a very clear link to Pune swimming. In the Seniors & Juniors, swimmers from Pune accounted for 30% overall, while in Sub-Juniors it was even higher than 43.5%. This can only mean one thing that the coaches in Pune are doing something right, that despite all the clamp down on swimming their swimmers are able to show the result. Pune is on track to become the swimming capital of the state, if it is able to carry on its winning streak, as is.
On a side note the districts of Thane also did quite good at the state selections despite all the hiccups. A few academies that were run by passionate coaches were able to beat the blues by finding various ways in which to train their swimmers.
The “Outside” Factor
One of the biggest challenges that swimmers from Maharashtra faced was in terms of access to the pools. In contrast, some swimmers from Maharashtra migrated to other states like Karnataka and Delhi to be able to train regularly. A significant number of them even trained in the UAE. All these swimmers had a significant advantage over the local swimmers, who had been reduced to tears in their search for a pool to train. The disadvantage was clearly reflected in the final results.
For instance, there were 102 events in the Senior & Junior competition, out of them swimmers training in UAE, Karnataka, Delhi, scored single selection in 39 events, and both the slots in 23 events. Thus out of 102 events, 62 events were dominated by swimmers that were training regularly.
In contrast, the Sub-Juniors were not as badly impacted as out of the 60 events, swimmers training outside only took up one selection slot in 4 events, and both in 2 events. In fact, it was only in the girl events that the outside factor worked. And nowhere else.
Thus, the trend reflects that in older groups, where swimmers are more serious and where significant more investment is required, affluence helps. In Seniors & Juniors, more than 50% of the events were dominated by these “privileged” swimmers. Meanwhile, at a Sub-Junior level, there are not many advantages in terms of training or coaching, hence privilege and affluence are not really a major factor.
Missing ones
Another big miss at the state selection trials were the missing swimmers that had participated in the nationals previously. There are a whole bunch of talented swimmers that have proved their worth over the years, but did not participate this year like, Parth Jain, Mayank Periwal, Samyak Ramchandre, Fateh Singh, Om Satam, and so on. The absence of such swimmers was also a big miss and their presence could have made the events more interesting.
The Outlier
One of the heartening trend is that a few swimmers from interior districts of Maharashtra were also able to secure selection. Swimming outside of Mumbai, Pune and Thane is not all that popular or well-organised. While India’s best swimmer (so far) has come from the interior of the state (Virdhawal Khade from Kolhapur), there are hardly any names or mentions for such swimmers in the list.
If swimming has to really pick up in the state, it has to move beyond the bigger cities and seep into the smallers ones like Jalgaon or Nashik. A special mention needs to be made for Drihti Ahirwal, who secured selection for three events and hails from Palghar.
In the end, this year and the one gone by has been catastrophic for swimming. Hopefully, things will improve with passage of time. On a side note, as is the case for the past few years, the struggle at the association level continues in Maharashtra. As a result, the SFI-aligned Swimming Association of Maharashtra conducted trials in Pune. The Maharashtra State Amateur Aquatic Association (MSAAA) held trials at Vashi. The matter once again reached the High Court, which directed SFI to also take swimmers selected by MSAAA into consideration for the nationals. Thus, there will be two teams at the nationals from Maharashtra, one aligned with SFI and other mandated by the court.