Prominent wedding planner from Chennai, Vidya Singh, is flying high after winning four gold medals at the 8th Masters National swimming championship. There were 850 participants from all over India, most of them ex-state or national level swimmers.
The swim meet had everyone from youngsters to senior citizens participating, including an 82-year-old man. Vidya says, “Most of them were coaches, from the police force, and the services. In spite of the tough competition in all age groups, we won 14 medals.”
The main topic of discussion was the fitness level of all the senior citizens who participated in the event. “We have been winning the overall Inter Club Swimming Championship for three years.
This year we won the adult section at the inter club meet conducted at MCC. The level of fitness of our adult swimmers is amazing. A team of 12 members from the Madras Club won 32 medals at a state level meet. We want to make sure our city represents the sport at international meets too,” she says proudly.
On the challenges faced during training sessions, considering the endurance level required for the competition, Vidya says, “Seven of us went to Bengaluru after rigorous training; we swam 70 to 80 laps every day and timed our sprints. We also got national level coach Mukundan to train us once a week. All our hard work paid off and we performed extremely well at the Nationals. Even the time spent on preparing for an event goes a long way in improving general fitness.”
Ask her about the kind of importance swimming receives at the National level in comparison to other sports, and she says, “We can’t really compare swimming and other sports, but we do get sponsors for clothes and accessories even though ours is the Masters tournament.”
On the interaction with other swimmers, Vidya says, “Even though the competition was intense, the camaraderie during the meet was just amazing. Everyone spent the whole day at the venue, cheering the team members. We danced to Kolaveri Di and Chammak Challo.
Each and every state of India was represented at the meet. Sebastian Xavier and other Asian and national level swimmers also took part.”
